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 a Good (Bad) Wedding Outfit

Friends, good morning from rainy Minneapolis, where your good friend Sarah is going to jot a couple notes to you today and then head off to work, where the FDA is keeping me hopping.  Today’s happiness will be some sharing of more pictures from the Bad Wedding Reception party.

First, though, you need to understand something about me if you did not know this already.  My “real job” is often given the title of Compliance Officer, Quality Manager, Professor, Auditor, 3^rd Party inspector.  I am responsible for protecting the safety, rights and welfare of literally thousands of patients each year by managing multiple teams on multiple continents.  We make sure that testing on medical products is done according to each country’s laws.  We make sure the surgeons follow the rules, and when they do not, my job is to get them back in line.  Most doctors are excellent (not all…noooooo sir, but more on that later), but just because a doctor is excellent does not mean they are excellent at following the laws of ethics and research when it comes to documenting how a medical product is first tested in humans.  That is my job.  I am a detail-oriented safety freak, and if my name goes on something, you can be assured it has been done right.  I am a rule follower, and I get tremendous satisfaction in making sure all lists are complete, all boxes checked, and that all bad things are righted.

When I am not working, I need to balance out the being in charge all day with being able to play. For this reason, I cook in many professional kitchens, just for fun (but also following the rules there).  I throw parties that have elements of surprise and creative…er…shock sometimes.  I make sure the people around me remember how to be kids again.  That is what makes me happy.  This party, Bad Wedding Reception, was the ultimate, 3 year dream of mine to pull off, and thanks to some really excellent Friends, we did it, with style.  Here are some pictures.

Now, every good party needs exceptional attention to detail, and this is my Rainman-esque strength.  There will be mints in bags with varied colors of ribbon that match the wedding colors of hot pink, royal purple and black feather.



There will be programs that have an extra “oops” hole punched in them.  The paper will be crap quality, and those dang pink foil ribbons will be seen everywhere from the programs to the tabletop décor to stuck to my leg in the morning. 

There will be guest book that is ridiculously detailed, just perfectly, to make you laugh and look twice, because it is juuuuuuust that close to being normal, like all Minnesota weddings, yet is still ridiculous.



 

There will be a poofy colored toothpicks for the little smokies, and multiple flasks being passed around, and a pink gorilla (did you see him there, in the background?) that my Norwegian guests and I dubbed The Norwegian Symbol of Fertility, after they won it at the amusement park called ValleyFair when they visited this past year.

 

The gorilla is included because it is hot pink (to match the wedding colors), because Dag & Thomas could not join us in person, and because it is stupidly hilarious that they would “send” this as a gift to the “wedding.”  Many of my Friends had met them at the multiple dance parties and dinner parties I hosted this past summer, and I loved having Dag & Thomas there with us, even in pink spirit.

Then there will be costumes---planned for weeks, tweaked to be just right.  Here is a picture of my incredibly talented Friend Raymond and me, in our Christmas sweaters from the ugly sweater party.

 

My sweater was designed by our Friend Lee Ann, who has a way of just making me stop and stare in awe at her creations, they are so funny.  Below is a picture of Raymond with my “Groom,” who flew in for the wedding, he is that good of a Friend.  Raymond’s character title is “Stripper Leftover from Last Night,” and Groom’s suit just perfectly matches our bad wedding theme.  They both played their characters perfectly---confidently---which helped everyone else be able to have even more fun.  Are these not 2 of the best outfits you could possible see?  Is this picture not hysterical?!  I love these guys.

 

Then there were the bridesmaids, my Friends “Bitsy, Porsche and Ginger Claussen” (love their character names) who allegedly went to school and sorority with me t Kappa Ypsilon (spelled wrong on purpose, in order to secure the initials KY…inappropriate, I tried to warn you.)  Here they are with my Friend Mike, who is one of my biggest encouragers in swim class and who I met over foie gras at La Belle Vie.

 

Here is a picture of Brian and Bitsy.  Brian is channeling Len Gunderson, a guy whose brother was supposed to have the gig as videographer but it filling in instead.  Bitsy picked up that fine outfit at GoodWill earlier that day.

 

And then, there is a picture of me, again with Mike, as I slowly began my transition from a mixture of Courtney Love and the Queen of Belgium into Melted, Drunken Bride.

 

 

So you see, Friends, happiness is a good (bad) outfit. Happiness is being surrounded by people who are all in, who are ready to embrace the silliness of a fantastic party that raises money and household goods for homeless families.  Happiness is pulling all of these details together to create a whole bundle of energy in the evening that builds and builds and builds for weeks beforehand, then culminates in just pure fun.  That is what we had, and that feeling is carrying me through this week and so on, and so on.

I keep thinking of more things to share with you, including the inappropriate ice sculpture, which deserves a whole post of its own, because so many bad things happened.  I need to get to work, though, so I will catch up with you tomorrow.

Sending lots of love and reminder to relax and be kids more often, because it is just so much fun,

Your Good Friend Sarah

 

 

 

 



Happiness is a Bad Wedding Day

Friends, good morning from Minneapolis, where it is 6:02AM, and your good friend Sarah is surrounded by wedding props. 

My living room is a disaster of pink paper lanterns and tabletop candletents.  And bottles of vodka, of course, next to the yoga mat and IT band rollers.

 

My kitchen has been taken over by bouquets of both plastic AND dead flowers.

 

My good Friends Tami, Tina and Peggy spent most of yesterday with me, putting together bouquets, boutonnieres, all of the programs and décor for this Bad Wedding Reception theme party I am hosting tonight for all my clients and Friends.  I am still covered in hot pink and bright purple glitter.  That did not stop me from attending a mini “bachelorette” party with my good Friends Todd, Raymond & Kevin at Capitol Grille.  Here I am in my appropriate hat of mourning, lamenting the impending loss of my virginity.  Ahem. 



 

The restaurant and hospitality world is my extended family---we really love each other and look after each other, and nothing makes us happier than to celebrate milestones and make crazy new stories together.  With that in mind, yes I did, as a matter of fact, wear that hat into the restaurant and kept it on as I opened my gifts of hotdish cookbooks (which is only proper and right since this is a Minnesota wedding, after all). 

 

People do not wear hats in Minnesota (except for stocking caps), so naturally, this hat made exactly the statement I wanted it to, and it got the full attention of the whole staff.  They all played along so that everyone else in the lounge could be part of the joke, too, both celebrating and mourning the impending loss of my “virginity” on my wedding night.  So fun.  Brad and I got a quick picture yesterday after he brought us steak with béarnaise, as a good piece of perfectly cooked meat is the best way to mourn with my personal shopper and the top fashion crowd of Minneapolis. 



 

Friends, I just want to take a quick moment today to reflect on how lucky I am to be surrounded by so many good people.  From the restaurants to the spas, to the vendors to the people who be playing parts in the wedding party, I am so lucky, so very, very lucky.  My Friends have stayed up late last night for wedding “rehearsal,” they have made last minute runs to Best Buy to pick up extra speakers, they have taken time off work to help, they have shopped up and down multiple Good Wills and Ragstocks for the perfect outfits (see Tina’s husband Tim, here, for just a quick taste of what one ensemble will look like tonight…..)

 

Doesn't he look GREAT in disco pants?!!  Yes.  A thousand times yes.  You KNOW you have a good party ahead when the men get into pulling together the very best outfits as much as the women do.

 

Everyone has been putting in so much happy energy into one-upping each other’s outfits that tonight will be a night of so much laughing, so much camaraderie, so much happiness, that I physically feel surrounded by love already.

 

Happiness does not need to be expensive.  Happiness does not need to be designer happiness or 4 star happiness.  Happiness is having super creative and fun Friends who jump in and write scripts with you over take out from The Lotus, like Michael & Lana did, last night, practicing the timing of the jokes, the prop placement, the moments we hope will be the funniest of the night.  Happiness is my Friend Katie and her Friends practicing their “sorority speech” as “bridesmaids” Bitsy, Porsche and Ginger Claussen, from our Sorority “Kappa Ypsilon…KY”.  They will, of course, be standing next to Peggy, known as “Bitter Friend who Wasn’t Included in the Wedding Party.”  I can only imagine these girls’ outfits----we have been exchanging giggling text messages all week.  Happiness is knowing that Dameun has prepared QUITE the processional Bad Wedding Singer performance for me as I walk down that pink leopard fabric aisle runner to meet my groom.   Happiness is getting text messages from Landon, our chef, with his ridiculously creative cake design ideas and a flawless menu to go alongside it.  He even promised to carve me a watermelon with a sawtooth “handle” out of the rind, just like they used to do for every single bridal shower I ever attended as a kid. I only hope I can keep a straight face tonight as I look around and take in all the details and thoughtfulness.

 

So, you see Friends, when you think about real happiness, it never comes from working too much or too hard.  It never comes from making more money or being seen on the Scene.  Happiness comes from having the greatest people you can think of, all around you, all at once, who are in the joke and are happy to be part of it because they know just how much it makes me happy.  I feel a little lump in my throat today, I am so grateful to be blessed with such good people in my life.  My vows today will be not only to be faithful to my groom, but to take good care and be faithful to these dear Friends who will help me make this the absolute worst wedding reception ever.  Happy Bad Wedding Day, Friends, to us!  Mazel tov!

With lots of love from Minnesota,

Your Good Friend Sarah