My 2014

Another year has (quickly) come to an end. I'm so looking forward to what 2015 will bring. I'm sure it will be a year filled with happiness and adventures and unexpected moments. I'm thankful for every new year, just as I'm thankful for every year that we say goodbye to. Now, I'm excited to look back on 2014 and look forward to the what comes next.

We started off the year with a trip to Minnesota in the middle of their coldest winter to date. We went to The Mall of America and visited family and friends. We'll go back again soon, but hopefully in warmer weather this time. 

Also in January, we took our engagement photos, which also just so happened to fall on the coldest day of the year. I couldn't feel my toes by the end of the shoot! But the photos are still great. 

We celebrated our one and only Valentine's day as an engaged couple this February with a fancy dinner at a dimly lit Italian restaurant and a lovely cake made by my MIL. 

In March, AJ and I moved to Boston for his final internship before his graduation. He worked a lot and determined that he did not love working in an out-patient facility and I read, wrote, and worked in this lovely city. 

I turned 22 on April 10th while we were still living in Boston. My mom and godmother drove up from CT to be here and a few friends from the North Shore came for a dinner of pizza from Fig's. 

May was a busy one! First, I celebrated Mother's Day with this pretty Mamma in Boston. We did all her favorite things, which included relaxing in her apartment in the morning with coffee, followed by a walk through the Public Garden where we sat and people watched from many different benches, book browsing at Barnes & Noble, and pizza from Upper Crust.

 Also in May, I graduated from Fairfield University! I really graduated in January, but I walked with my class in May. Luckily, it was a beautiful, warm Spring day and all my favorite people were there to watch me walk. I was also treated to a delicious brunch at my favorite restaurant in Connecticut, Centro.

AJ graduated, too! After a few years of constant studying and working, AJ graduated with a degree as a Physical Therapist Assistant. He then passed his licensure exam and was offered a job in Boston!

Every year in June, we go to Chatham for a relaxing week and this year was no different! This was AJ's second time joining our family trip to the Cape and I think he's starting to love this beach town almost as much as I do! I can't wait for our next trip out there to eat lobster rolls and Chatham Candy Manor chocolate and to sit on the porch for hours every morning, reading and watching the gentle waves get closer and closer. 

We celebrated our fourth 4th of July together with a family barbecue at my cousins' house and reminisced about the past four years. 

At the end of July, we celebrated our four year anniversary together with an al fresco dinner of finger foods followed by a movie and macaroons. 

In August, I finally visited my sister in New York City and spent a weekend with her and her friends all around town. 

I was also lucky enough to celebrate my wedding with the best bridal shower, thrown by my mom and sisters at my mother's house. All of my favorite ladies were there to help me celebrated and I was so generously gifted beautiful gifts along with a delicious brunch followed by cake and cookie trays. 

At the very end of August, AJ and I moved back to Boston for his new job and for me to start school. We are so happy here and were so excited when we moved back!

AJ turned 24 in the beginning of September and we celebrated with a delicious Italian dinner in the North End and some gifts, which included a magic bar cake. 

I also started grad school in September and quickly got to work reading, writing, and figuring out how to balance my classes and my teaching job. 

October was the most important month of the year because we got married! We had a lovely ceremony in New Canaan, Connecticut and had the best time at our reception in Darien. Every time I watch our wedding video, I wish we could have the exact same party all over again! This was definitely the highlight of our year. 

In October, we also did some festive, New England activities, such as eating apple cider donuts and picking apples at an orchard in North Andover and visiting Salem the week before Halloween.

In November, we celebrated Thanksgiving on our own. I cooked a big meal and we happily ate together before taking a nice walk through the Common and Beacon Hill before we started decorating for Christmas! 

And finally, in December, we decorated our cozy apartment for the holiday. We baked, watched Christmas movies, and burned candles that smelled like pine to get in the spirit of Christmas before heading home to celebrate with our lovely families. 

It was a crazy, amazing, and fun year and I'm so thankful for all of it. This was a big year of change for me but I had family and love surrounding me every step of the way and it could not have been better. I hope all of you had a wonderful 2014 and I wish you all a very happy new year!

MFA Stuff

A little update. As some of you may know, the day that AJ and I moved to Boston for his internship back in March, I found out that I was accepted to an MFA Creative Writing program in Boston. From the moment that I received my acceptance email, my mind has been preoccupied with MFA related thoughts: what my classes will be like, all the writing I'll be doing, and what my future will look like upon graduation. If there's an article that has the letters MFA in the title, I read it. I can't get enough.

So, a few days ago, on a whim, I checked to see if any changes had been made to my previously blank class schedule for grad school. I was oh so pleasantly surprised to find that it was no longer blank! I have a schedule! And it's a wonderful one, too. I am taking two classes (they suggested only 2 for your first semester). One is Teaching College Composition and the other is Fiction Workshop. Each class is once a week for 3 hours and 45 minutes. I have class Tuesday night and Wednesday night and that's it!

Having my schedule makes me realize how soon school will be starting and that it is very real. It's coming! And it just so happens that in the same week I got my schedule, Bustle.com has put out two great articles regarding books and writing.

The first is about books that you should read before starting an MFA program. It's a great article but it freaked me out—I haven't read any of the books listed! I have to get on that. Now.

The next article is also about books. These, however, are books that you should read before writing your first novel. This might not be universal for all MFA students, but one of my goals is to write a novel (at least a draft) by the completion of my degree so this is a handy list!

I love articles that suggest great books for different reasons. I hope you enjoy these, too!

Currently Reading: The Bell Jar

Remember when I said that Ficciones was not an easy read? It's not an easy read, it is hard. I'm struggling and I'm almost ashamed to say I am setting it aside. There are so many books that I still want to read that I don't want to get bogged down by one that I just can't pull myself through. I'll pick it up again one day but for now I have moved on and oh, what a great book I have moved on to.

I feel like this book is one that all girls should read at whatever point in their lives. I'm surprised it has taken me this long to finally read but I think I am at the age where I can appreciate it more thoroughly.

The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath follows the path of Esther Greenwood, a Smith college student who suffers from depression and mental illness. The story begins when Esther is living in New York City and working at a magazine during the summer before her final year of college. That plot would be story enough, but Plath takes us through Esther's life when she returns home to Massachusetts for the rest of her summer during which time her mental state continues to decline.

I'm over halfway through the book at this point because it is impossible to put down. This morning I had to force myself to get out of bed, not because I was tired but because I just wanted to lay there all day and read about Esther.

The depiction of the way her brain works is clearly drawn and makes her depression understandable. Her suicide attempts are extremely detailed and almost excruciating to read, you feel for her so deeply and you want to help but there's nothing you can do! It's painful but I think it's important for people to read, especially because these scenes are written by a woman who dealt with her own depression and internal demons.

I won't go in to much more detail so that I'm not repeating myself when I write a review once I finish the novel in it's entirety, but this book is very similar to Pamela Moore's Chocolates for Breakfast so if you enjoyed that, you will enjoy book too.

Again, this is a book that many, especially female English majors, have read by the time they hit their twenties and I think that's phenomenal. This is a book that everyone should get their hands. You will find yourself in Esther if you have ever dealt with depression. If you have never had to deal with mental illness, you will be shocked and awed at this depiction of it. I think that in the world today, there is so much discussion of mental illness, that it will do every well to have a great understanding of it. Reading this novel is the perfect way to begin to grasp this issue.

The Week of Cakes

My future mother-in-law is the queen of making cakes. She makes cakes for everyone and for every occasion. She made no less than 4 cakes for this week and they were all equally delicious. For some reason, a number of events feel into the same week, starting this past Sunday, and as a result we have been on cake overload. I've never eaten so much cake in such a short period of time.

But let's start from the beginning.

As you know, my graduation ceremony was on Sunday. I could only bring 5 people so my mom, godmother, grandmother, sister, and AJ sat outside, under the beautiful sky for over 3 hours to watch me get my degree. After, we headed to my favorite restaurant in Fairfield, Centro, where we met up with AJ's family for a delicious brunch. FYI, for anyone in the Fairfield County area, I highly suggest you go to Centro for brunch sometime. Instead of bread baskets, you get croissant baskets that are to die for. After brunch, we came back to my house and a few more family members came over for cake!
AJ's mom, Carmen, made me a two tier cake decorated with my school colors. Inside was a vanilla cake with cannoli like filling, except she used cream cheese, and ginormous chocolate chips. I still have the top tier waiting on my dining room table but I'm practicing self-control and not cutting it until I've gone another few days without cake.

The second cake we devoured in one night was for my mom's birthday on Tuesday. Carmen made her a chocolate cake that had Nutella and raspberry jam between each layer. She covered the outside of the cake with yellow fondant with blue details, my mom's favorite color combo. Everyone that was over that night shamelessly went back for a second slice before swallowing the last bite of their first piece.

And the final cake (of this week, anyway) was AJ's graduation cake at his grad party last night. It, too, was decorated with fondant for the graduation theme. It was similar to my mom's cake, with chocolate layers and Nutella and jam layered between the layers. As always, it was delicious and I even got to watch her make some of the white fondant the night before—it's a lot of work and a lot of powdered sugar! Now, hopefully, Carmen will get a little break from all her cake making (during the week, she also made a cake for her sister's birthday that I'm so bummed I didn't get to try! It was tres leches cake but chocolate!) and I'll begin my sugar withdrawal.

AJ Graduated!

Sorry for the not so great photo quality, but that's usually what happens at graduations. Dodging other people's arms and cameras to get your shot in before the graduate leaves the from, hence the photo on the bottom right. But the photos are only a very small part of the big day that was had yesterday. On May 22, 2014 AJ graduated from NCC with a degree as a Physical Therapy Assistant after many years of extremely hard work! It was such an exciting day because he worked so hard to get here. I can't stress that enough and it seemed like the celebration and acknowledgment of that was long over due.

First, there was his pinning ceremony with the other students in his program. The families were able to attend and we sat in the PT room at their lab tables and had a little lunch before the professors spoke and then AJ even delivered his own speech that had many in tears! Everyone came up to him after to tell him how great it was and I was, of course, very proud.

After they were all pinned and many photos were taken, AJ's parents, siblings, and I headed outside to the tent where the entire school's graduation was held. It was long and crowded but I would have sat there for days just to see AJ's happy face when he walked across the stage and his full name was read correctly! I stood up and shouted as he got his diploma and he saw me and waved.

Just as everyone was leaving the tent, it started to thunder and downpour so we hurried to his family's house, changed into sweats. His mom started making us soup to warm up and AJ poured us glass of Hoegaarden beer (it was my graduation gift to him—he got me a beautiful bouquet of flowers that included my favorites, ranunculus!). His mom and I split one, and he and his dad each had their own.

Tonight is his real graduation party and it is only fitting that this celebration last more than just one day! I am so proud of his hard work and I am extremely proud to be his fiancee!

I Graduated!

Ok, so I really graduated in January but on May 18th, 2014 I walked across the terrace of Bellarmine Hall at Fairfield University whilst my name was read into a microphone and I shook the hand of our school's president, Father Von Arx.



I wasn't sure if I was going to walk because I had already graduated and I've been away from school for so long anyway, but it was important to my mom and grandmother and it was actually important to me, as well. It's a big life moment and it really is an experience. It is something to be savored and recognized. College was hard work and it is nice to have it be celebrated.



I LOVED my time at Fairfield. I transferred there at the beginning of the second semester of freshman year and I was a commuter student. Because of these factors, I don't feel like I was a huge part of the Fairfield community. I was only on campus for my classes and occasional lectures throughout the semester. I didn't go to parties or live in the dorm but I still loved my college experience, it was the perfect fit for me. I can not even describe all that I learned while at Fairfield. I read Dante, Shakespeare, Joyce, Woolf, Dickens, and the Bible. I was introduced to ideas and thoughts and practices that I was never privy to before. I owe a lot to my education at Fairfield. I had wonderful professors who really love their area of expertise and who you could tell love teaching. I had so many experiences that are priceless and will aid me in my future as a student, as a writer, and as an academic.