for everything there is a season

it's that time of year again in new orleans where the flowers have been blooming since february, the air is getting a little stickier but not too hot just yet. it's the time where crawfish boils are a plenty and festival season is in full swing. it's one of the most wonderful times of the year here, if you want someone to move to new orleans, get them to visit you in the spring.

there is one catch though to all of this springtime glory, being a forever student. finals and projects and presentations are always due right when the fun starts. this is only compounded when you work full time which results in days spent inside at the computer instead of by the river listening to music with friends. you would think i would be used to it by now, you know having been a student now for the past 25 years of my life, the past 6 of those years being in new orleans, but somehow it still makes me mad. yes, mad.

all this to say i constantly have to remind myself that i'm almost there, it's almost the end, the home stretch (barring a little thing called a dissertation but whose counting) and try to remind myself to study a little harder so that after june i can write, blog, take pictures, decorate my house, cook, and stay up late on week nights (not for school work) and not be stuck inside on beautiful days.

i'm thankful for the reminders of sweet jasmine, that remind me that seasons come and go.

i'm also thankful for seersucker and the man that comes with it that supports me so graciously each day.

so for now i will live out this season as best as i can, and be thankful that it is in fact only a season. then maybe all of my 4 readers left will be able to read posts more frequently about more interesting things! just typing things out makes me feel better already...

not new years, not collards

new year, new ambitions of finishing things i start, starting things i know i will never finish, and finding excuses for not doing either :) i started this blog to document the challenge to myself to strive to do "new" things, which i did every day for a year (even if i only documented 8 months in writing).
so my new "new" challenge to myself for 2012 is three fold: 1) do more of the things that i enjoy/love to do 2) do fewer of the things i think i "should" do 3) do everything i need to do (which i'm still working on figuring out that category). three things in the enjoy/love category are writing, blogs, and pictures so here goes another shot!

so for the randomness of this title: some of our friends gave us a beautiful bunch of kale around new years. i love dark leafy greens and when we used to get a CSA box every week i ate many more of them, i should either start getting that box or buy them more myself! i digress. i wanted to find a new recipe and cooking light had the perfect one (especially because this was the ONE week of winter we had here in new orleans) it came from a collection of winter vegetable recipes.

it wasn't collards but somehow this dark leafy green represented a sign of a new year, new luck (how's that for cheesy...which the dish did have in it and made it even better!) but seriously, it was the first, fresh cooked meal we made of 2012 and the first after many long weeks of finals, traveling, and holiday chaos. it was much needed!!

pasta with black kale, caramelized onions, and parsnips

here's to 2012 (even at the end of january), to more new things, less obligated things, and more needed things