happy veterans' day.

i’m going to tell you a little story today, and it goes something like this: once upon a time, a baby boy was born in a small coal-mining city in northeast pennsylvania. the baby’s name was john (though he was called jack), and he was the oldest of three children. jack—tenacious and driven even from childhood—spent the seasons of his youth in that coal-mining city, attending local schools, working odd jobs at local businesses and, eventually, falling in love with and marrying a local girl, one of his sister’s friends, named jane.

soon after his wedding, jack deployed to combat in world war II, fighting in five battles and climbing through the ranks to become a brigadier general—at one point serving as a liaison for gen. george s. patton. after retiring from active duty and returning to jane and the little pennsylvania city where he got his start, he became deputy director of the local economic development office and was on the board of more nonprofit organizations than can be counted on both hands. he also helped found a local soup kitchen for disabled veterans, because he knew that he’d been given so much and that so many of his fellow vets had so little. and in the midst of all of this, he and jane had two children, a boy and a girl.

as the years wore on, jack remained active in the organizations closest to his heart, although he was able to do less and less as his health began to fail. but he was always proud of his community and his country, and even prouder of his greatest accomplishment, his family—of his 66-year marriage to jane, of his son and daughter, and of his grandchildren.

in 2007, jack’s health began to deteroriate more rapidly and he passed away in april of this past year. he was given a full military sendoff on a cloudless, sunny day—exactly what he would have wanted. so on this veterans’ day—in the middle of fall, two days before what would have been his 90th birthday—i want to make sure i take a moment to remember jack: a fearless leader, a faithful husband and—most important, to me personally—my dear, dear grandfather.

{ photo above of my grandparents, jane and jack, circa the 1950s, scanned and resized for this blog. i adore this photo, and you can easily see why. }

sundaze.

a few snapshots of my weekend, taken by my lovely friend shun. isn’t the light pretty in these photos? there’s something so timeless about them, i think…

how were your weekends, my dears?

new obsession (or: old love, leave me alone...)

“real-life” friends of mine who read this blog will recognize the link i’m about to post, because i sent them an “oh-my-gosh-i-just-found-this-incredible-web-site” e-mail yesterday. um, talk about feeling schmoopy!

dear old love is a collection of anonymous notes, submitted by readers, addressed to past loves and crushes—requited or unrequited. site founder andy salsberg edits the submissions, attaches a clever headline to them and posts every day.

and guess what? when i started reading the entries, i thought for sure i was going to feel sad, but a lot of them made me laugh, and some of them were pretty heartwarming. below are a few of my favorites; you can click here to read more. (warning: the site is addicting!)

You Hauled

I would have moved anywhere with you. I just wish you asked.

Pet Peeved

I don’t care that you miss my dog. When you cheated on me, you cheated on him, too.

Literary Award

I know I’ve won, because I’m the one you call to talk about books.

Only in Dreams

When we dated I was distant and couldn’t get fully into you. Now that we’re apart you’re the only one I have sex dreams about.

what would you say to an old love? i’ll tell you mine if you tell me yours...

historic.

i stayed up until 12:30 last night, laying in bed, watching the results of the 2008 united states presidential election. i watched pennsylvania, ohio and florida (i’m so proud) go blue. i watched newscasters officially call the race at 11 p.m. i watched john mccain give a gracious conciliatory speech from his post in arizona. and then i watched barack obama walk onto the stage in chicago’s grant park and deliver a speech that transfixed me and moved me to tears.

yes.we.can.

as obama left the stage to thunderous cheers and applause, and i leaned against my pillows, my eyes wet and my emotions on fire, this line—from a book i know well—ran through my mind:

“and in that moment, i swear we were infinite.”

election day.

i am feeling cautiously optimistic. nervously hopeful. but mostly, really, really, really ready for change.

tonight, after a workout, i’m going to park myself on my couch and watch election coverage until i absolutely have to go to sleep. i’m also going to whip up this recipe, which the oh-so-lovely molly of orangette posted (um, i’m totally in love with her blog, by the way). sure, it kind of negates the aforementioned workout, but on a night like this, we need comfort food. and hey, i’ll eat it with a salad.

what’s your favorite comfort food? what are you doing tonight? are you having an election party or, like me, are you going to be glued to the tube?

p.s. i know that election day far and away trumps halloween, but since i didn’t post yesterday, i just have to say that i had a fantastic friday (dressed up in fairy princess garb, no less) and that i hope you did, too! what were your costumes?

p.p.s. one last psa: this blog is going up around 1:45 p.m. eastern time, which means that there’s still tons of time for you to get out and vote if you haven’t. please, please, please go. for all of our sakes.

{ image above taken by moi. sorry for the gratuitous boob shot, but i'm proud of my sticker...and that's how obama and i roll; he's close to my heart! }