Happiness is the Perfect Pecan Pie

Friends, greetings from Charlottesville, Virginia, from your good friend Sarah, who is one day closer to her flight home.  I will only be home for a whole 12.5 hours before flying to Brazil for a week, but still, it will be home, and it will not be a Hampton Inn, clean and welcoming though it is.  Happiness.

 

Here is a lovely sunrise from Winchester, where I drove from yesterday.  A good sunrise even makes a Hampton Inn parking lot look good, doesn’t it?  Yes.

The drive through the state of Virginia is one of my favorites to do.  I love the blue mountains in the background, the hard gray rocks lining the cliffs, the green farms and millions of beautiful trees.  Here are a couple pictures of the views, from the spot where someone flew by sailplane for 4 1/2 hours, waaaay back in the day.

 

Now, mind you, when driving through Virginia, one cannot help but hear country music and sing along to John Denver’s, “Take me home, country roads, to the place I beloooooong, West Virginia, Mountain Mama, take me home, Country Road.”   I did that, I sang along as I saw the semi trucks hauling the trailer park homes along 495 and 64.

I sang along to Johnny Cash, I sang along to Patsy Cline, I sang along to Tennessee Ernie Ford, just like my grandpa used to do on the tractor as he combined the fields of corn and soybeans when I was a little girl.  I love these drives, these quiet, beautiful drives all to myself.  I stop at each and every scenic view, and I sing the whole trip long. Finally, after a 2.5 hour drive, I arrived in Charlottesville, Virginia, home of the nearby vineyards that Thomas Jefferson planted.  Here are some pictures of the Downtown Mall, where I shopped and shopped and shopped.

Charlottesville is a strange mix of upscale politicians, French, Cajun, and Asian antiques and dumpling shops.  Then there are the hippies and bookstores that smell like incense and give me an asthma attack, like some episode of Portlandia.  I dig it, though, and I found a ton of cool things, including this food truck.

 

 

And then, in the Downtown Mall, I found the pies de resistance:  I found a place called the Old Whiskey Barrel, and I found an outdoor table of my own.  Happiness!

 

 

I had the most perfectly cooked pecan pie (pronounced PEE-CAAAAAAAAN, like nyahhh-nyahh-nyahh since we are in the South now).  It was perfectly toasted on the top, had a beautiful brown sugary inside that was lacking all those nasty Karo syrup lumps of pecan pie in the Midwest, and it had a perfectly buttery/lard-based crust that was not too thick.  This, right here, was my dinner.

I spent the night shopping for a few hours, finding several perfect hats (because your good friend Sarah LOOOOOOVES a good hat), some cookbooks, and an early birthday present for Raymond, who has the best style of most people I know.  I cannot wait to surprise him!  I found a honey made of sourwood that tastes like maple and spice (yay!  A new honey!) and I found warm toddy cocktail books, which I will use all fall and winter and I take good care of you all in my cozy little loft in Minneapolis and my soon to be temporary apartment in New York.  It is a happy, happy day here in Charlottesville, and while I miss you all very much, I sure do enjoy a little day to myself, to do all the things I love best.

Happiness today includes just enjoying some time driving through the country singing, some perfect pecan pie, and doing some shopping in the mom and pop stores of Charlottesville.  Wishing you a day of these lovely things wherever you are today.  Sometimes the simple joy of doing all the things you want to are the very best day ever.

 

With lots of love from Charlottesville, soon to be DC, Detroit, then Minneapolis,

Your Good Friend Sarah

 

 

Happiness is: Not Drowning

Friends, good morning from Winchester, Virginia, where your good friend  Sarah is missing her morning swim. 

 

You have to understand something about me, though….I have an incredibly strong phobia about drowning.  I am terrified and thrilled with the ocean and the sea.  I am 87% confident this is how I will finally succumb and give up the last of my 9 lives.  Lord knows I have already cashed in 5 of them, what with the tornado, being hit by a semi truck trailer, the flight from Laguardia airport that never should have taken off and immediately had to do an emergency landing, some random episodes in Brussels, and various other ‘adventures.’  Two years ago I almost got pulled out to sea by a super strong undercurrent off the coast of Maui, and that made me realize it was time to face one of my fears.

 

Learning to swim as a kid included being thrown into the deep end as my uncle Peter yelled, “Now Swim!”  This was repeated enough times that eventually I learned how to doggy paddle, for self-preservation, after mouthfuls of water and feelings of sheer panic.  Eventually I figured out the breaststroke—without my face in the water, the backstroke, and how to do handstands under water, but I never learned the crawl.  Not properly.

 

This past summer I had made a pact with myself that when I returned from my business travel to Australia and Japan that I would learn how to swim like a grown-up, or, more accurately, like the 7 year olds at the pool at the gym that I watched with envy.  They were fearless, these kids, and I felt like a flailing cow in the water around them.  I signed up for lessons at LifeTime Fitness with Coach Lance, who is the Triathlon coach.

 

He had me buy fins. He had me swim with a floaty board with my hands extended and my feet kicking.  Then he had me buy goggles and do the same thing without my hands extended but instead at my side, relaxed, as my feet kicked.  Back and forth, back forth across that pool, me constantly thinking I would drown and panicking as I tried to take in as deep a breath as I could each time I surfaced. 

 

Then he gave me a PVC tube, about ½ inch (1 cm) in diameter, and he told me to hold that in front of me, both hands attached, as I kicked and had to pull my head up out of the water to breathe.  Next step was sessions where he had me wear a full on head snorkel, with the tube coming off the center of the front of my head, rather than off the side, like you do when you scuba.  I am scuba certified through PADI, so I knew how this breathing worked.  

 

Finally he had me wear fins, wear the goggles, wear the snorkel, and use the PVC stick, as I switched hands over and over, each one individually grasping the stick held out in front of me as the other hand scooped/stroked the water.  In between all of this, 5 year old Ashley cheered and clapped, saying, “Yay, Sarah!  You did it!” as I made it in 2 breaths up and down the almost Olympic pool. I thanked her and wondered quietly to myself if her hot dad was single.  Every day we practiced with that damn stick, with that damn snorkel, with those damn fins. Every day I felt clunky and mechanical, wondering when I would finally learn to swim.  Every day Coach Lance would send me emails saying, “All in.  I believe in you,” and I would go back and face him and that pool and my fears, every day, over and over, until we got to the last lesson.

 

At our last lesson, Coach Lance, as usual started by saying, “Sarah, I am so excited for you, I am so excited for you to learn so much.”  I laugh at him every time he says it, because he says this to the 5 year olds, and I feel like a little girl when he says these things, even though I am secretly pleased to have a Coach that really coaches me and pushes me and believes in me.  He is the very best coach I have ever had.  Today was our last lesson.

 

After his usual “excited for you” speech, he said, “Take off the fins.  Take off the snorkel.  Set the board aside. Swim 2-25s (two lengths of the pool), and breathe as often as you need to."  And then, like a little stingray, like a chubby little flounder, like an eel, I did.  I swam and swam and swam my little heart out, breathing to the left, then breathing to the right.  I looked down at the bottom of the pool in my pink goggles, I felt the water come up over my pink swim cap, I felt my strong legs kicking, kicking, kicking from the hips as my belly button turned left, then right as I breathed and swam.  I felt my head finally be under water enough that my glide was just right.  I felt my hands come up out of the water and then scoop and stroke the water until they briefly rested at my side before coming back up to do it again.  I felt my heart beat strong, I felt my lungs take in water, I felt myself spitting out water I had breathed in, and I did not feel panicked, I felt strong and powerful and like a little fish.  I felt free and joyful and so happy that when I reached the end of the pool and touched the wall, I was smiling even before I came up out of the water, which whooshed right up behind me, I had such a strong stroke.  I could swim.  Finally, finally, I could swim.

 

Coach Lance clapped and cheered the last meters of my swim, and he practically fell into the pool when he ran over to fist bump me.  The other athletes who were there at the pool with me each morning—the super hot triathletes who had coached me on stroke and breathing, on what type of gear to buy and who had commented each day on my swimming to encourage me---they all stopped and cheered.  I felt like a 7 year old girl, but I felt happy from tip to toe, I was so very proud that I finally, finally had done it. I had learned how to swim.

 

Friends, today’s happiness comes from facing one of my most shameful fears:  not knowing how to do something most of you are really good at.  I never took swimming lessons before, because we could not afford it.  I knew I loved the water---you cannot get me out of the ocean when we vacation.  This is the reason the top of me is tan and the bottom of me is not so much---because I am almost always in the water, and you cannot get me out, I love it so much.

 

Today, I hope you think about something you always wished you learned how to do, and I hope you go do it.  I feel like a champion, even though I am still a chubby little flounder, but I am in that water, and I am a swimmer. I could not be more proud of Lance for being such an excellent coach, and I am just the littlest bit proud of me, too, for following through and doing something that made me so scared for so long.  When we are grown up, sometimes we are the only ones who can pat ourselves on the back and say, “Atta girl,” and that, today, is what I am doing for myself.  May you, too, have the chance to Atta Boy and Atta Girl yourselves, because you are worth it, and it feels so good.

Wishing you lots of love from Virginia,

Your Good Friend Sarah

Happiness is: a little journey

Friends, greetings from Winchester, Virginia, from your good friend Sarah.  Yesterday I flew into Washington, DC’s Dulles airport. I love walking through this airport because of all the 50 US State flags on display. 



I flew in early, in order to meet up with my Friend Bobby, who is a federal agent.  He and I have been Friends for more than 13 years.  We met on a plane---I was super mean to him on a short flight from Indianapolis to Detroit before I realized he was an agent.  Funny how some of my very best Friendships come from airplane conversations, and usually start out when I am on my worst behavior.  I will share that story with you another time, but suffice it to say, Bobby and I remain terrifically great Friends, and he got me into the agent training facility fitness center so that I could get a workout in with the recruits.  Did yours truly just haaaaaappen to end up on the restricted side of the campus?  Maaaaybe.  You know I did.  You knew I would.  I have a knack for ending up in places I am not supposed to be able to get to, and I like that challenge.  After taking in the academy and all the recruits in their uniforms and weapons, I ran outside on the trails and stopped and did each fitness stop’s exercises. 

 

I saw a couple sweet little deer just hanging out, watching me and the handsome young bucks (get it?) running the trails.

 

When I stopped to do my crunches, I looked up at the trees and imagined myself swaying back and forth with the wind.

 

After a good hard 60 minute sweat, I went to shower.  Let me tell you what, Friends, government agencies, even the most important ones, have crappy facilities.  Check out this pepto-bismol pink and green women’s locker room, complete with hairdryer from 1971.

 

I spent the night at the academy after drinking scotch with a bunch of super experienced agents who had a million stories of drug busts and money laundering rings, and then I made the 2 hour drive to Virginia. I love this state.  I love its beaches, I love its mountains and valleys, I love its kind people, I love the accent here---that soft just a little bit southern drawl, and I love how the men all open doors and say good morning.  It was a lovely drive through the fog-covered mountain valleys just after sunrise, with the trees just starting to turn colors.

 

Winchester loves its historical houses and its green spaces.  The hospital where I worked today even embraced the outdoors by putting in floor to ceiling windows so that as I worked, I could see this view.  It is so peaceful here.

Tomorrow I wrap up with this hospital and its excellent surgeon and my audit work, and I drive to Charlottesville to do it all over again at a new place.  Travel is like that---I fly in, I make Friends quickly, I work super hard, I move on, and I repeat it each week.  This is my life.  This has been my life for about 20 years now.  I get to see this country, the world, 6 continents and 39 other countries.  The best part of the whole thing is the people I meet and the things I learn from them.  I doubt I will ever have roots again, this travel is so much a part of who I am now, but I have never been happier.
 

Today I hope that you, too, take a minute to look around you, wherever you are, and just take in how beautiful it is outside.  Take a minute to be grateful for all the people you cross paths with on your own little travels and journeys.  I have had some of the greatest experiences of my life doing what I love, and I have met some of the greatest people I could ever hope to, and I’ll tell you what, Friends, for all the challenges and crazy adventures I have had, I would not change a thing.  That, today, is my happiness.
 

Sending lots of love from Virginia, the place for lovers (which is their state motto---kinda neat),

Your Good Friend Sarah

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



Happiness is: the People Around You Every Day

Friends, good morning from Minneapolis, later to be Washington DC and Virginia for the week, from your good friend Sarah.

 
Yesterday I met up with my good Friend Maureen at Café Latte for healthy breakfast in anticipation of a very unhealthy dinner.  One of the things I love best about living in the US in summer is our selection of fruit salads. One of the other things I like is knowing that when I want an American piece of cake, I know where to find it.

Later in the day, we had another Sunday Funday after I packed for my trips.  While watching the red carpet arrivals for the Emmy awards, we, as usual, drank boxed wine and ate pizza and chili cheese dip.

I love this group of Friends and our routine of classing it up for part of the weekend and being easy-steesy-casual on Sundays.  As usual, the dogs were also right in on the action, this time with 3 of them at our feet.  You can see Tater perched on my lap in the first picture, and you can see my feet in the bottom picture as I judge the Red Carpet while in yoga pants.

 

Happiness today is nothing complicated or deep.  Happiness is simple:  it includes a group of Friends with a simple, easy Sunday routine of laughing and telling stories together.  It is a little ritual of our version of Family Night.

 

As I watch the series finale of Dexter and pull together a couple pictures from yesterday, I am already morphing into travel mode, already becoming my Travel Self, with its own routines and rituals and habits.  I love travel, partly because it is always so lovely to come home to these Friends.

 

Wishing you a simple day of happiness today, my Friends, that includes an appreciation of the people around you every day.  These are the people you have chosen to make part of your life.  Be sure to enjoy them.

 

With lots of love from several planes on Delta,

Your Good Friend Sarah



Happiness is: 1960s Art and Getting New Ideas

Friends, good morning from gloriously sunny Minneapolis, on a perfect late summer day.  Your good friend Sarah woke up feeling….thirsty and inspired.

 
Every part of me is thirsty this morning:  thirsty for intense Clarins moisturizer, thirsty for thick conditioning hair mask, thirsty for gallons of tea, but mostly thirsty for more time to think about all the art we saw last night at The Walker Art Center.  Last night was the pre-opening party for the Claes Oldenburg exhibit.  Those of you in Minneapolis will know him (and his wife, too!) from the cherry and spoon exhibit in the Walker Sculpture Garden.  I did not know much more about him or his work, but I recognized a couple things, and I cannot stop thinking about it.
 
Yesterday, in preparation for this exhibit and the 1960s dance party, I got my hair all done up huge, like 1963, I wore cat eye glasses and white go-go boots and pearls and a swing coat and wrap dress.  I took my patent pink Gucci purse to match my shimmer-pale makeup, to set the whole thing off.  Here are Marisa and I, in front of the event photowall.

I wore patent white go-go boots (which you KNOW I am going to rock all through the winter, they were that much fun!)

Marisa, Tom, Fran, Joe & I met up and toured the exhibit and had a couple of drinks.  Here are Marisa and I at the closing of the party.  I love this picture of us!

 

Here are some pictures of Claes Oldenburg’s collection---which is known as the beginning of Pop Art.  I did not know enough about Pop Art---sure, sure, I knew Warhol and saw the exhibits at MoMa in NYC, but I never studied art before, and sometimes it intimidates me.  Not this.  This fascinated me and made me get quiet, because something about it feels familiar to me.  Well, most of it. Not the cardboard sculptures, though they are interesting in their own way (especially the little flame mounted up on the wall, which was to symbolize a fire out a building window in lowertown NYC.)

 

What I loved best about this exhibit, though, is not just the larger than life sculptures, but the things on display in a mini museum within the museum:  the things that, at first, look like junk, but with a quieting of the mind, show a little look into what inspired all the art.  I loved looking at all of these things and seeing patterns:  masculinity, sexuality, iconic images, and this interesting capturing of the beginning of how food changed in the 1960s and became larger than life.  Notice the fries, which are certainly a global icon, now, thanks to McDonalds.  Notice the pastry case, (Pastry Case I) which captures that diner feeling and the whole shift to eating out.

 



 



 

Notice the little things that might look like a bad garage sale, but to me show me what caught his eye.  It shows me what things he picked up and turned over and over, around and around, and something sparked him, woke him up, pushed him to create.  You should see my little collection sometime…I am no Claes Oldenburg, but I get this, this speaks to me. This makes me feel like a little kid again, and I love that feeling.  Here are pictures of his mini collection, with things the size of toys, and the last one is the exhibit of his "store," which was dubbed the beginning of Pop Art.

 

 

 

 

 

One of my favorite questions to ask people is, of course, “What makes you happy,” but one of my other favorite questions is, “How do you get ideas?”  I love hearing about different things that inspire people.  Sometimes I try those methods on, to see if they inspire me—and sometimes they do—but often it helps me understand how people around me see the world, whether it is the same as me or different.

Today, if you are in Minneapolis, I really think you should look into this exhibit this week, because like it or not, it will be something unforgettable.  This art, that time with Friends, these boots and this outfit were an unforgettable night to me, a night that made me feel full of promise and hope of things to come, and that, to me, is my favorite art of all.  Last night I learned that about myself, and that makes me happy, too.

 

Tonight we will drink boxed wine and eat chili cheese dip out of crockpots as we watch (and judge!) the Emmys Red Carpet while wearing yoga pants and Paris t-shirts, and tomorrow is yet another flight to Washington and almost 3 weeks of travel.  Wishing you a lovely rest of your Sunday, safe flights this week, and time to go look at life in a new way.  Go be inspired, Friends, go see something totally different than you usually see, and let that make you happy.

 

With lots of love from Minneapolis, soon to be DC,

Your Good Friend Sarah

 



Happiness is 1960s Hair and White Go-Go Boots

Friends, happy Saturday from sunny Minneapolis.  I do not have much time to write today, as I was busy getting the last of the returns done after the Bad Wedding Reception party and am getting ready for the Claes Oldenburg pre-party at the Walker Art Center tonight.  The party encourages attire from the 60s, so I channeled my grandmothers.  Check out this huge hair!  I sure got some amused looks today as I ran the rest of my errands, I’ll tell you what.

There will be a band, D’Amico will do the catering, and it will nice to catch up with lots of Friends tonight as we dance all night, me in white patent go-go boots, big hoop earrings, pearl cuff bracelet, wrap dress and cat eye glasses, of course.



I am looking forward to an evening of art, music, Friendship and love.  Today is just a quick note to wish you a good Saturday and remind you to go out and have fun tonight and enjoying your Sunday, too.  I will be traveling for a long, long time to a whole bunch of places, and I will do my best to stay in touch. 

 

Happiness is looking ahead to travel, but happiness is also being here in my hometown and celebrating a brand new exhibition.  I firmly believe it is of utmost importance to surround oneself with art, with poetry, with music and color and live performance, always, to keep our minds active and ourselves interesting.  Step out of your comfort zone and enjoy something completely different.  I love doing that, and this is my happiness for today.  Maybe see you there tonight?  I hope so!

 

Lots of love, and go-go boots too,

Your Good Friend Sarah



Happiness is: A Few More Bad Wedding Pictures!

Friends, good morning from busy Minneapolis, on this lovely Friday morning.  Your good friend Sarah has an extremely busy day ahead, so today I will share with you some more fun pictures from the Bad Wedding Reception party this past weekend.

I am headed out on 5 weeks of business travel, starting Monday, which will morph into 3 months of only being home for a couple days here and there. After that, I will be living in New York City for about 3 months, cooking at a restaurant 3 days a week while taking in all things New York.  In between all of that, I will be writing lectures and presentations for multiple global speaking gigs and managing audits here and there for my clients. It is a busy time, a happy time.

Last night, Tami, Steve, Diane and I met up at Umami, a new pop-up restaurant by the team from Travail.  The team, there, are still finding their feet, but it was super fun to meet up with these Friends and look at more pictures that Tami and Steve took from the past weekend.  I think you can see that we sure did have an awfully good time.

 





Yes, it is true, when I decided to throw a party, it will be a barnburner of a party.  I can hardly wait until my photographer, who just ran away to Salzburg for a week of opera composing (true story---you KNOW I have interesting Friends…) comes back and sends me the rest of the pictures….because he is so talented, and those will be even more hilarious.

So today, as you enjoy your Friday, I hope you have a just a couple minutes for a little happiness, a little lightheartedness in between all of the meetings and the Fall busy-ness that has taken over September and whooshed it almost away already.  Sometimes the most important thing we can do is take a moment to be present and enjoy the right now, and so that is what I will do today.

Wishing you a terrific weekend, my dear Friends!  See you tonight at Red Cow, tomorrow at the spa, then the backyard bbq birthday, then the Walker Art Center opening night for Claes Oldenburg, then brunch on Sunday, then the Emmy’s party before Delta Airlines and I are reunited.

With love of happy love from Minneapolis,

Your Good Friend Sarah