New Year's Resolution: the Perfect Week.

Photos via super fun site The Selby - with the feature on Dan Martensen and Shannan Click being exactly what I envision "The Perfect Week" to look like.

Wake up early three weekday mornings and run four to five miles. Run six to seven miles on a weekend. Please remember to stretch.

Unwind by drinking wine at night with my roommates while watching bad television.

Cook more than I eat out. But still eat out of course, because it's one of my favorite things.

Bike as much as possible: to Walker's house, to try a yoga class (ha.), etc.

Breakfast with Beth.

Receive/send a letter in the mail or a great email from/to a friend that's too far away.

Make mandatory time to write and really write.

Don't forget the reusable bags when grocery shopping.

Don't have a freak out about the future - be at peace and be committed to the decisions I make.

Use the internet constructively, to be a more informed and interesting person - not endlessly clicking through photo albums only to come to the realization that all the people featured are complete strangers.

Reading chapters of a really good book before bed. Or on a blanket in a park on a warm day.

Hang out with my mom, dad and Casey. Have a great phone conversation with Meg.

Have a killer night out that somehow involves dancing in great shoes.

Spend a really early Saturday morning being forced by Walker to volunteer. Followed by a trip to the Farmer's Market, followed by a thrift store and a nap.

Go to church on Sunday.

Igloo.

oh. my. gosh. is this not the coolest thing you've ever seen!?

i'd love to say i had a hand in this feat of engineering genius, but all the credit goes to Meg, Andrew and Casey (the dynamic team featured in the top photo).

Walker and i left them with a base yesterday only to return that night to a fully realized igloo with smoke issuing from the opening in the top - inside they were roasting marshmallows and hens leftover from a failed Christmas dinner experiment.

my dad claims he saw it featured on news channel 4 (the big time). see it for yourself in front of our house, it will probably be around for awhile judging from the weather report.

...it's an especially unforgettable igloo. wink wink.

i also tried a pomelo today. if you know how much i love grapefruit and citrus in general, you'll know i was in seventh heaven - pomelos are like a grapefruit, except for bigger and better.

Blizzard.

again, alllll photos by Andrew Mau. except when he's featured.

snow slushies.

polar bear scrambles.

finished The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides, so so so good. on to Where Men Win Glory by Jon Krakauer. two of my favorite authors.

cabin fever.

and igloo pics to come.

Extravaganza '09.

love.

alllll photo credit: Andrew Mau.

Winter Night.

Meg's boyfriend Andrew is staying with us for Christmas so we went out to a tree farm off Sorghum Mill with him and his beautiful camera to pick out our own real, live, smells-really-good tree. He deserves all photo credit.

I learned that the process of getting a real tree wandering around a farm at dusk while sipping complimentary hot cider is far more preferable to assembling a fake one or picking one up at Walmart.

I also learned that the "Christmas Trees" grown in Oklahoma are stringy and odorless - Firs don't grow here because of the hot summers. Needless to say we are phonies and the tree we picked out had been shipped in from Oregon.

Free, Cat Power.

Nothing Ever Hurt Like You, James Morrison.

Comfort You, Van Morrison.

Trying to slow down time,

Repeat the sounding joy.

twentysomething.

after years of expensive education
a car full of books and anticipation
i'm an expert on shakespeare and that's a hell of a lot
but the world don't need scholars as much as I thought
maybe i'll go traveling for a year
finding myself, or start a career
i could work for the poor, though i'm hungry for fame
we all seem so different but we're just the same
maybe i'll go to the gym, so i don't get fat
aren't things more easy, with a tight six pack
who knows the answers, who do you trust
i can't even separate love from lust
maybe i'll move back home and pay off my loans
working nine to five, answering phones
but don't make me live for my friday nights
drinking eight pints and getting in fights
don't wanna get up, just have a lie in
leave me alone, i'm a twentysomething
maybe i'll just fall in love
that could solve it all

philosophers say that that's enough
there surely must be more
love ain't the answer, nor is work
the truth eludes me so much it hurts
but i'm still having fun and i guess that's the key
i'm a twentysomething and i'll keep being me

(jamie cullum).

Best of 2009.

Images via Flaming Lips last New Years and Tumblr.

Best Thing to Do After Graduating: move to washington, dc and work at a think tank.

Best List Other Than This One: new york times magazine's year in ideas.

Best Time to Graduate: a recession.

Best Thing to Come Out of the Recession: no more circuit city, a totally unnecessary big box store.

Best Thing About Graduating: making (a little) money. not being overwhelmed by the mountain of homework that used to await me every sunday night. regular eating schedule.

Best Musician/Band to See Live: bruce springsteen and the e street band!

Best Super Secret Special Club to be Initiated Into: the yaya sisterhood.

Best Decision to Make When Suddenly Faced With How Much Reality Costs: buy a new car.

Best Way to Get a Guy to Fall for You: sing karaoke. terribly. really, really terribly.

Best Thing to Do Immediately After Work On a Summer Friday: jazz in dc's sculpture garden + sangria + emily solon + freak rainstorm.

Best of Television: jeanine's final solo on so you think you can dance. liz lemon. glee.

Best Discovery That Makes Life Better: the "request copy" feature of public libraries. lala.com. that 99.9% of the way people interact with you has absolutely nothing to do with you and everything to do with themselves - and vice versa. netflix.

Best Place to Narrowly Escape Murder: graceland too.

Best Trend: cupcakes. pomegranate. plaid.

Best Twitterer: john mayer.

Best Place to Live: treehouse.

Best Movie: eh.

Best Drinks: grapefruit juice. riesling. diet dr. pepper. water.

Best Eats: lobster roll in cape cod. truffle salt on cherry tomatoes. tapas. philadelphia rolls. talapia tacos at big truck. the salsa at trader joe's.

Best Thing I Wish Was In Oklahoma: a trader joe's.

Best Thing I Baked: lemon sour cream cake.

Best Interesting International News: iranian protests over the summer.

Best Purchases: black jeans and faux leather jacket from forever 21 - so cheap. blush in taos and deep throat by nars - not so cheap.

Best Worst Purchase: all ipod adapters fail miserably. gre class.

Best Place to Run: past the lincoln memorial.

Best Place to Dance: rooftop. beauty bar.

Best Saying: i beasted it. (as in dominated).

Best Celeb Sighting: sonya sotomayor, complete with leg cast.

Best Music: the yeah yeah yeahs, it's blitz! the avett brothers, i and love and you. noah and the whale, the first days of spring. kid cudi, man on the moon. phoenix, wolfgang amadeus phoenix. and as far as singles played nonstop on the radio go - jason derulo, whatcha say.

Best Worst Person: that scalper at acl. the person(s) that stole my purse. teabaggers + any moron who thinks sarah palin is qualified to be a presidential candidate in 2012.

Best Worst Decision: giving in to the hoopla and reading the transcripts of tiger's texts. uggggh.

Best Person: paul krugman.

Best Thing Heard On the Radio: this american life - episode 286, mind games.

Best Job To Have: planning a city.

What's I'm Looking Forward To In 2010:

meg brings andrew home for christmas! (technically still 2009).

moving in with colby to her new house in oklahoma city.

a birthday present brought back from argentina.

presenting my thesis at a conference in hawaii.

australia and new zealand in march. oh gosh, the sartorialist is there now taking his beautiful photographs that make me restless with anticipation.

beach trip with my best friends.

mystery trip with kelly and paige.

weddings!

seeing how it all pans out.