When Your Dad Gets an iPhone

My Mom, sister, and I exchange an average of four pictures of day.

Two of them are always the outfits Alyssa and I are wearing that day (seriously), at least one of them is usually of Holly, Dilly or Zula and a lot of times Alyssa texts us pictures of whatever she made herself for dinner that night (she advanced past me in the cooking arena after about 3 days of living in her apartment).

My Dad usually isn't in on our daily conversation because we exchange literally dozens of text messages a day and he has a job that involves a lot of concentration? Also, he doesn't like when things beep at him and he signs most of his text messages "Love, Dad" (which I love) so it would be pretty time consuming for him.

This week, Alyssa had her first round of graduate school finals (she finished yesterday!) so our pictures since about Wednesday of last week included a lot of her in yoga pangs looking stressed. She even sent us one that said "I'm turning into a stress unicorn," with her pointing to a zit in the middle of her forehead.

On Tuesday, she sent us this angry/sad picture of herself because she had a final at 4:00PM that day.

I was walking to my office, so obviously I sent her this picture back.

My Mom thought this whole thing was hilarious and sent the pictures to my Dad. Ten minutes later we had this.

I died of laughter right there on Broadway.

After he sent it, he wrote "I'm going to use it in the 9:00 AM meeting" and then Alyssa texted back "Its 9:03! You're late!" (you should know that Alyssa worked for my Dad's company for two summers and never got invited to the 9:00 AM meeting. She's still fairly offended).

This is a pretty pointless post however I want to advocate for parents having iPhones! Because this whole interaction was incredible and when you live far from your family, its nice to be able to be in basically a constant chain of conversations with them. Go get your parents iPhones...and then teach them how to take selfies! Right now, go!

Go Hang Out with the People Who Knew You When You Were 16...Right Now

Last weekend, one of my best friends from high school, Jackie, got married.

That's her on the right in the white! This picture is from the winter of 2006 when we went out a mini-tour of rural Pennsylvania colleges to visit Jen (next to Jackie) at York College of Pennsylvania and Jackie at Juniata College. Needless to say it was a weekend of a lot of pictures and way to many shots (we didn't really drink in high school and were still getting the hang of it at this point). Kim (in the brown) and I nearly exploded with excitement as we drove up to Jen's dorm that freezing cold night, we were so excited to see her.

Apparently long sleeved white tshirts were something we though were appropriate to wear on a night out?

This picture is from our first winter break home from college at our Annual Holiday Extravaganza (notice the capitalization? It was a super serious event). If ever there was a picture that illustrates the joy of reuniting with your friends from home after your first semester away at college, I think this is it. "Look at us!" our eyes say "We are so worldly and we know everything there is to know about everything! We are very mature and take ourselves very seriously!"

I think I can count the number of times I've seen Jen, Jackie and Kim on two hands since that picture was taken. And that really sucks. We didn't have a falling out (at least I don't think we did? Won't it be super awkward/terrible if they read this and are like "YES WE DID, KATE, we hate you!") and I never made a conscious decision to not keep up with them. It just kind of happened and before I knew it, it was 2013 and we were all adults. Getting engaged, getting married, having jobs that made us move away kind of adults.

My three best high school friends see a lot of each other. Maybe because they live in the same state (though not particularly close, Pennsylvania is a big state!), maybe because they are just way more proactive than I am. Maybe because people change and grow apart and that's fine.

But this Saturday we were all in the same room again and it was the lovliest...it just happened to be that the room happened to be a church and then a reception hall and one of us happened to look a lot better than the other three (no offense to Jen and Kim, but we just really weren't competing with the dress and the killer eyelash situation Jackie had going on).

And so I say to you: go hang out with the people who knew you when you were 16 right this second.

It is the strangest/weirdest/coolest experience ever. Its extra strange/weird/cool when you have significant others!

Have so much fun and leave on good terms. Make promises to see more of each other. Because I think even if nothing comes of those promises, when you get married or graduate from graduate school or buy a house or have a baby the people who knew you when you were 16 and awkward will be there. And you'll be able to say to each other "Remember when we had the Holiday Extravaganza and we gave people pumpernickel toast with cream cheese and pickles to eat?" and laugh and laugh. Because the people who made that toast together were important to each other and I think its important to remember that and hold on to it if you can.*

So, I'll see you ladies in December at Jen's wedding...and maybe after that, too.

*My Mom is shaking her head right now and saying "I told you so, Kate"

On Last Names & One Year of Marriage

Yesterday, John and I celebrated one year of marriage! When you get married everyone tells you about how fast everything moves and I have to say they're right; its like I blinked and its a year later!

After our wedding, John and I took a spur of the moment trip to Atlantic City for two nights (where I won $300 from a penny slot machine after hitting a deer on the highway on the way to our hotel...it was a pretty eventful trip). Our first morning there, I opened Facebook on my phone and promptly changed my last name from plain old Legnetti to Legnetti-Olsen. 

366 days later Facebook is the only place that name exists. 

It only exists in that place for a few reasons, I guess. First of all I am wholly intimidated by the process of changing one's name. The Social Security Office seems to be involved and so does the DMV. I have to get a new Passport and a new Drivers License and a new Social Security Card. And our bank accounts need to be changed and the proper supporting documents provided? That's a lot of paperwork. 

The other and more pressing reason, I think is that I have no idea what I want my last name to be. 

Before we got married, John made it completely clear that he didn't care what my last name was. He asked if I wanted him to take my last name and hyphenate it with his, so we could both be Legnetti-Olsens. I thought about it and for some reason that seemed a little too progressive for me (more power to you if that's what you decide to do, but it just didn't feel right to me). 

Then I started thinking about the hyphenating my name and then I kind of decided that when we had kids, I wanted them to be Legnetti-Olsen, too. But then we would all have the same last name and John would just be plain old Olsen.

But if I kept my last name and the kids were Olsens, then they would all have the same last name and I would be the stand alone Legnetti in our house.

I really like my last name. I like that its so uncommon, I like my signature, I like how it sounds...I just like it. And so I think for now, I am keeping it. 

But...Facebook. 

I thought about changing my last name back to just Legnetti a few months ago, but then I thought that everyone would think we were getting divorced and it just seemed too dramatic. So I left it. And I think I'm going I going to leave it, because I think I like how it looks and maybe I just need some more time to get used to it and/or psych myself up enough to start the process. 

Maybe when we have kids I'll feel differently about what our names will be. Maybe I'll want us all to be Legnetti-Olsens. But maybe I'll always want to be Legnetti and for John to be Olsen and for our kids to be Legnetti-Olsens. Maybe I'll wake up one day and want to assume some internet anonymity and will become Kate Olsen-untraceable via Google because Kate Olsen sounds a lot like MaryKate Olsen. 

I know that sometimes women who don't change their last names get offended if they get mail that says "Mr. and Mrs._____" or if they go to a wedding and their place card has them with the same last name as their husband. I'm resoundingly not in that boat. Call me what you want...I will happily smile at the mail you sent me or be thrilled about the fact that I'm included in your special day.

Whatever I decide about my last name and whatever we decide about our hypothetical kids, I feel pretty wonderful about the fact that I even have the option to take some time to decide. I love that I married a man who didn't assume I would take his last name, that we talked about it before bed one night and that he was legitimately OK with whatever I decided. I like that the only person who blinked when I said John and I have different last names was a sassy bank teller last December. "Oh look at YOU!" she said. 

Yeah lady...Look at ME. My name is Kate Legnetti and I have  husband named John Olsen. We've been together for almost seven years and have been married for 366 days. We've got two cats and a house in Brooklyn. We've got crazy, loud families and friends who we love. He plays a lot of video games. I have more yarn in our living room than I should. We're a family regardless of what our last names are, and I love him more than anything. 

Happy Anniversary, babe. I love you.  

Nearly Ten Years of Friendship: A Photo Journey

I met Becca on the first day of our college Orientation in July of 2005 (that is so long ago I could cry). She kind of scared me because she had a nose ring, but we started talking anyway.

Almost ten years later, we've probably taken hundreds of pictures together. Potentially thousands. In that time, I'd like to say that we've perfected the photo taking but I would be lying to you.

These pictures kill me and I had to share them. It sums up the process we go through for nearly every picture we've ever taken together.

"John! Take a picture of me and Becca on the top of the Space Needle!"

"Hold on, I have to zipper my jacket"

"Should our hoods be up?"

"No, the hood should definitely be down. How does my hair look? I feel like its flat from the rain, is it flat from the rain?"

"No, OK let's keep the hoods up."

Upon reviewing my pictures later that day I realized that Becca's eyes are closed.

Nailed it.

A Conversation with John

After a night of babysitting...

Me: I love cash.
John: I don't.
Me: How could you not love cash?
John: I don't like that when I spend it, the remainder of it turns into coins.

I had this post saved in drafts since October. When I found it I laughed for about 20 minutes. Also those are my 6 month wedding anniversary flowers! With our Furminator. Because sometimes your husband surprises you with flowers while you are Furminating your cats.

This was a really crazy post, wasn't it?

HAPPY WEEKEND!

The Philadelphia Flower Show 2014

A few weeks ago was one of my FAVORITE events of the year! The Philadelphia Flower Show!  YEEP!

Once again, the snow thought it could mess with us but we once again prevailed, slipping and sliding our way to Philadelphia and then into the Convention Center. Take that winter!

The theme of this year's show was Articulture (like art + horticulture) which I wasn't thrilled with. But I think that's only because last year the theme was England and I just loved it so much. 2014 had a lot to live up to.

After seeing this contraption, I think I'm now afraid of things hanging from ceilings. Seriously how heavy must that be and I don't see nearly enough ropes/wires holding it up. Terrifying.

The Flower Show is much more enjoyable when you aren't planning a wedding, I must say. For the past two years, I've spent the entire show thinking "Pinks? Blues? Succulents? What is this flower I have never seen it before but do I want it to be a central focus in the table centerpieces". Seriously, it was the worst.

But this year I was like "Hey! Look at this giant ball of red flowers! Its so cool and I have no event that I want it to be at!" It was wonderful.

I loved everything about this landscape. Would a chest of drawers filled with plants be super weird to have in my living room? Or just a little weird?

This year, we even watched a full segment in the Designer's Studio. In our defense, we originally sat down to have a soft pretzel (I was starving after our harrowing journey in the snow) and then we got totally roped into this competition among these three floral designers. It was like Top Chef but with flowers and less sweating. I loved it!

Isn't this incredible? I especially liked this one because the person took the time to make nice number signs.

This bonsai tree is as old as I am! Isn't that crazy? CRAZIER is that next to this one, there was a 100 year old bonsai tree. Could you imagine having a relative die and then being responsible for the bonsai tree they raised for 70 years? That is an immense amount of pressure.

Future blog posts about the flower show will include me and my Mom in a photobooth and the return of miniature landscape design. I KNOW! I nearly burst into tears when I saw the miniatures this year I was so happy!

!

A few days ago, a blog I read did a post titled "!". It was all about being happy and frankly, I loved it. I also loved that everything ended in !

I sometimes feel that I use ! too much on this blog. Things here aren't terribly serious,  but sometimes ! gets thrown at the end of a sentence where maybe there should just be a .

But its Friday, so here we go. Everything is ending in happiness and ! and I hope you love it! (I love it already!)

My sister got into graduate school yesterday! Where she will work in a hospital! And dissect a human cadaver! That is so gross but we are so proud of her!

On Monday after work, Teress and I went to the Lion Brand Yarn Studio! We bought yarn for baby blankets for our friends and these adorable tape measures! I thought the tape measures cost $22 but when I looked at my receipt I realized the the yarn cost more than I thought it did! I love this tape measure and so does Dilly!

On Tuesday night they filmed an episode of Blue Bloods (which I watch occasionally with my Mom and Alyssa) near work! And on Wednesday morning they were still filming! And there was a prop cop car! I did not see Tom Selleck (or his mustache) but it was still pretty exciting!

On Tuesday morning it was so warm that Bagel Pub had a special iced coffee sign! I gave up bagels for Lent though and am attempting to not buy coffee, so it was kind of a let down!

Dinner with friends on a Tuesday is so fun! And so is frozen yogurt that looks like it is for children! I really like cherries!

Mystery water strikes again at 14th Street! Seriously where did it come from and why is there so much of it?! (! included with ?)!

Happy Friday, Happy Weekend! I hope its filled with lots of ! 

Funkity, Funk, Funk, Funk!

You guys. I have been in the funkiest blog funk of all funks.

Work is hard this semester. My coworker/friend had a baby (what's shakin, Baby Violet? You are cute and I will squish your face this weekend) and is out until December. Needless to say, things are a little bit hectic at the office and when I get home, the thought of looking at my computer screen some more can make me homicidal.

But it is beautifully Autumn-y this week and I just gave Mim a bath with some vanilla scented shampoo so back on the blogging horse we go!

A ton of stuff has been going on in the past few weeks including my first dress fitting (holy shit we're really getting married), the Color Run with my cousins, The New York City Mayoral Primary AND the return of good television.

7 weeks til I'm a Mrs. friends...welcome back!

Amen Baby JESUS it is FRIDAY & Other Such Ramblings

Well friends, this miserable week has nearly come to an end!

This week has really been the pits. I have bought myself an iced coffee AND a lunch salad every day this week. I basically just laid as soon as I got home every night this week. Except for last night when I babysat at 8:00. I mean 8:30. I mean 8:45. I mean 9:15. Seriously, my start time got changed four times.

8:00 babysitting means I can rationalize to myself staying a little late at work and then hoofing it over to the NYU library to finish the syllabus for the class I start teaching on Tuesday. 9:15 start time means that by 8:05PM my eyes are bleeding in the library and I no longer want to read the Amistad Rebellion (not recommended for a group of transfer students to relate to their transition to a new school) or sit in the library anymore.

Word to parents who hire babysitters: keep me at a consistent start time. It doesn't matter that you paid me from 8:00. I could have gone home to see my cats in the four hours that work ended and you actually needed me to sit in your living room while your child slept. Goodness.

This weekend, John and I are headed to Albany to see his family! I think Dilly is starting to resent us because we always bring Mim on weekend trips but not her since she can get herself in and out of the litterbox. Though she might actually relish the silence and the lack of me chasing her around the house trying to cuddle her in my arms all the time. #catlady

Happy Labor Day Weekend to you and yours! Autumn, me and my cardigans can see you!

A Conversation with My Aunt Lau

Last night, my Mom and Dad picked me up from my subway stop and took me out to dinner after they moved Alyssa into her dorm for her last year of college. When I found out they were coming, I called my Aunt Lau to see if she wanted to meet us, too.

My Aunts own their own business and are crazy busy doing something for a show they have coming up (I don't actually understand what they do). You should also know that my Aunt Lau has a GREAT office with the most comfortable couch in America. I fall asleep on it frequently, I am the best guest/niece/god-daughter in the WORLD!

This is how our conversation went:


Me: Hi Aunt Lau! What are you doing?
Aunt Lau: Laying down.
Me: OH! Do you want to meet me, Mommy and Daddy at La Villa for dinner in an hour?
Aunt Lau: I'm so busy!
Me: You just said you were laying down
Aunt Lau: I'll meet you there

Macaroni was had by all...except me because I've stopped eating carbs. Its been almost four weeks. I feel wonderful but seriously I ate chicken and broccoli at La Villa last night. It was one of the saddest nights of my life.


In other news: ITS THURSDAY maybe I will make it through this week? PS I love these highlighters from my Mom...The End.

A Conversation with Stephanie

This week at my job is always the pits. There are a trillion meetings and I feel like my inbox is constantly exploding. 

Because of this fact, this week's blog posts will be a little on the short/silly side. Like today's post: A Conversation with Stephanie. 

Last night we went out for drinks because it was Monday and why not? Stephanie got some cucumber thing and told me to taste it. I did.

Me: I don't like it...I feel like the taste is getting stuck in the back of my throat...its hanging on to my uvula.
Stephanie: Your uvula?
Me: You know, that thing that hangs in the back of your mouth?
Stephanie: Not your vulva?
Me: No, Stephanie. Not anyone's vulva.

A Conversation with My Mom

John and I spent this weekend in Pennsylvania celebrating my Dad's birthday and checking various things off our wedding to-do list. 

After dinner last night, we were all sitting in the family room watching 60 Minutes (my fave). My Mom was on her iPad and suddenly looked up and said to no one in particular, "What does YOLO mean?". 

And just like that I felt as though we should have been watching Honey Boo Boo instead. 

On Being Grateful...

One of my New Years Resolutions this year was to be more consciously grateful.

If you ask John and my Mom, they will tell you that I'm always looking to jump to the next thing. When I was in college, I was looking to grad school. When I was in grad school, I was looking to a job. Now that I have a job, and should be focusing on our wedding planning, I sometimes send John apartments for sale. "Think we should buy this?"

No. We should not buy that. I should enjoy planning our wedding and seeing my friends and decorating our house and going to happy hour.

Once, my senior year of college my Mom said something that really stuck with me. It was the end of my Fall semester and I was in typical finals mode: hair on the top of my head, yoga pants, tote bag full of books and paper, yapping to her on the phone as I walked to class.

"I can't wait for this semester to be over," I said to her. "I wish it was two weeks from now and I was home taking a nap on the couch." "Don't say that to me," she said. "You're wishing you're life away."

I'm not sure I really realized the truth of what she said until sometime last winter. I finally felt like I had hit a stride...comfortable in my job, in our new house, in my ability to be a kind of grownup. Things had finally settled down a little bit for our family.

And so at New Years, I made a decision: stop thinking about the future so much and start seeing what's around you. Start appreciating what's around you.

Stop wishing your life away.

And so, I have. Its definitely taken some practice, but I've gotten pretty good at it. When I feel myself having a particularly ungrateful day, I make a list in my head or sometimes in a notebook, of things I'm thankful for. Sunday in the laundromat? Not thrilled about waking up early or lugging my laundry down the block or sitting in the laundromat for almost two hours. Thankful that it was a beautiful day, that there was a breeze in the laundromat (and that I wasn't sweating from the heat of the dryer), for the great book I'm reading and that there was enough iced coffee in the refrigerator for me to not have to buy one.

Being more consciously grateful, even for little things during the day, has really changed the way I live my life. I think particularly it has made me more appreciative of the people in my life and the time I have by myself. I would absolutely recommend making mini-thankful lists in your head during the day. Sometimes my list is only "Hey look at that cute puppy on the corner!" That's it. A stranger's cute puppy that made me smile.

Have I stopped looking at apartments to buy? Absolutely not. But I have made peace with the somewhat crazy floor in our kitchen. But not our lack of a dishwasher. Because seriously, I really want a home with a dishwasher :)

My Sister Wanted You to Know...

Alyssa feels that I did not do a sufficent job of blogging about all the fun we had while she was here in June. She wants you to know that we did many fun things which included brunch at Applewood AND taking our cousin Bridget on the subway...which is always an adventure!

I also took Alyssa on her very first trip to Fairway! She was confused when I explained to her that there was a deck with a view of the Statue of Liberty out back and she was even more confused when she saw it. "But this is a supermarket," she said. "Right. With a deck with a view! And they serve breakfast!"

"But don't we just need some snacks? Why do we need to sit on the deck?"

"Because we drove all the way to Red Hook Alyssa, so please enjoy the view for five minutes and then we will go get chips!"

We spent a whole day in the city with Bridget looking for my wedding shoes. Success was had times two at our final stop, Kate Spade, where I bought not one but two pairs of shoes. I was only going to get the heels, but Alyssa told me I needed the flats because "Its going to be a long day and a classy bride can never be barefoot". So to the register the flats went as well!

Bridget hates the subway...

We also watched a million episodes of Law and Order SVU and went out with Alyssa's friends who confirmed for me that I am old and cannot keep up 21 year old drinking patterns.

Come back soon, Alyssa!

Some Things I Have Been Thinking about Lately

I turned 26 one month ago. Is it time for me to start using anti-aging face cream?

I am getting married in 103 days. I have been wearing an engagement ring for more than 24 months. John and I have been together for 68 months. How is it that time moves so fast but so slow?  Is no one looking into the movement of time these days?

Why do I love to clean/organize my cubicle at work so much? When professionally will I have my own office with a door?

How many scarves for charity do we think I could make between now and December? I'm quickly approaching #5.

Is there anything that makes a Monday less Monday-ey than a new pair of black flats? I think not!

A Conversation with My Mom

Me: "I started a book yesterday afternoon on my way home from work and I only have 40 pages of it left"

Mom: "What is it called?"

Me: "I Am Not Myself These Days"

Mom: "What's it about?"

Me: "A retired drag queen"

Mom: "A retired dry cleaner?"

Me: "No, Mom. Not even a little bit close. I'm going to put this on the blog tomorrow, OK?"

This is a Post about Smoothies

Let's talk about breakfast, shall we?

Breakfast is a struggle for me. Namely because I have two other living beings to feed and help go to the bathroom (in Mim's case) and because even though I say I'm going to make my lunch the night before, I almost never do. Ever. Suddenly its 8:00AM and I have ten minutes to figure something out before I have to run to the subway and WHAT am I going to make? 10 minutes is not enough time to make eggs, and I don't feel like cereal and its the Spring which means I no longer want oatmeal.

Enter: the breakfast smoothie.

Here's the deal with a breakfast smoothie...you can throw everything in the blender and do other things. Such as make your lunch, feed your cats, put your baby cat in the litter box!

The other perk of breakfast smoothies is you can sneak green things into it without your taste buds knowing! Here's my kick this week:

-1 cup skim milk
-1 pack vanilla carnation instant breakfast mix
-1 banana
-2 giant handfuls of kale (I know, KALE!)
-handfull of frozen mixed berries

Blend it up, throw it in your go cup and run for the F train!

While this all sounds wonderful, there are some downsides of the breakfast smoothie. First of all, my blender is kind of rickety and sometimes it takes 2 minutes to blend my smoothie and sometimes it takes 8 minutes. Who knows why, but I think it has to do something with the order in which I throw everything in the blender. Also problematic is that sometimes I get more smoothie than other times? I think sometimes I go overboard with the kale, but who knows.

A final pro of the breakfast smoothie is that you can eat it for dinner, too! Like yesterday? I had two. Fear not, I didn't have banana in the evening one (too many bananas can be a problem, guys) and I threw a yogurt in instead of instant breakfast but there was no cooking involved and very little clean up!

And there you have it guys...basically the most cooking advice you will ever get on this here blog!

What Can You Even Say?

Hug your friends. Kiss your family. Squeeze your pets.

Easter Miscellany

This is the kind of post that is my absolute favorite...miscellaneous. Basically what's going to happen is I'm going to summarize our Easter celebration by way of pictures. Very few of these pictures have to do with Easter per se but this is my blog, so there!

First of all I still get an easter basket. I got more/bigger things that could fit in my actual basket...the Easter Bunny was crazy this year. I don't know if you see a theme (Vera Bradely)? Notes: that basket behind my new Vera tote are not gifts from the Easter Bunny but are actually Holly's toys. Also my pink Easter basket is the same one I've had since I was born and if things go according to plan, it is the one that my daughter will use. By according to plan I do not mean that I plan on gender selecting a baby (AH!) but that you know...we don't lose the Easter basket between now and the time I decide to procreate. And by me I guess I mean me and John? This really went to a place I wasn't meaning to take this post. Anyway...

The morning started as many mornings do at my Mom and Dad's house: focusing on Holly. We ate breakfast, Holly ate some (all?) the bacon, we took some sister pictures, I put her in my Ikea laundry bag and carried her around and then I put her leopard bow in her hair because it was a holiday. We did all of this while laughing hysterically at basically everything she does.  Also my dad and I gave her a kind of bath with Kiehl's no water shampoo. Seriously Kiehl's.

This chick soap in my parents' downstairs bathroom makes me feel like I am using its brain's to wash my hands. But its so adorable? I'm really torn about the whole thing.

I thought it would be a great idea for Holly to drive with me and Alyssa instead of my parents so we could have some sister/sister puppy time!

We put Holly in her bucket in my car and we got less than two miles before we had to pull over and do a puppy swap because she was crying. My Dad swears that she was making her excited noise, but I'm pretty positive she was crying. So we met in the Commerce Bank parking lot and exchanged custody of her as though she was a child of a contentious divorce.

We finally arrived in Brooklyn and to Nanny's house and had a really great day. I think one of the best holidays we've had in a while. We ate great food, played a silly game with my cousins, and enjoyed each other's company.

I hope you had a lovely Sunday whether or not you celebrated with chocolate and peeps!