Years Together.

Today is my parents' 33rd anniversary. As I get older,  it becomes clear to me that the qualities I require for a future spouse have been shaped a lot by what I've learned from them - trustworthiness, communication, acceptance. They know the other's strengths and weaknesses, and watching the balance that time has given them - it's a beautiful and enviable thing.

Though they're not immune disagreements and difficulties, they just keep on holding hands and looking towards the future. There are still lessons I need to learn from them (ehem...like when to drop an argument, among other things), but the biggest thing is that a marriage is a living thing. Feed it and nurture it, or it dies. I am so glad that they've managed to keep theirs alive - what an amazing challenge to live up to.

Happy Anniversary, Mom and Dad!

My February 14.

Instead of one card, Steven made me a laundry line of four  *  gypsy jazz, namely Django, is vital for cooking (I think his swingy sounds infused into the food)  *  I cooked up arroz con pollo for Valentine's dinner

Not pictured: the requisite flowers (in a 1940s glass milk bottle--he's perfect) and stack of chocolate bars. I'm starting to really dig this holiday.

How was your Valentine's Day? And don't forget... if you're in Charleston, come out to the Valentine's Day Hangover at Pure Theatre tonight!

"I could do this all the time..."

Yesterday was rainy and dreary, and I kind of had a rough day at work. When I got home, I saw this on my desk:

Yeah, he's a keeper. 

I Hope This Gets To You: A Viral Love Letter

I just saw this on Gizmodo, who has this to say about the video:

"The video was put together by a guy named Walter C. May and his roommates—who just happen to be in a band called The Daylights. It was posted on YouTube yesterday and has since then been tweeted about by May's friends, random strangers, and even Katy Perry.
But May's girlfriend, for whom the video was made, hasn't seen it yet.
That's because May wanted the video to reach her organically—through tweets, links passed between friends, and blog posts. He wanted to show his girl that they "can feel close without having to be close every day," and that their relationship can remain strong even though they'll be thousands of miles apart over the next two years."




I really hope this story is true and not just a way to get his band some attention.

And if it is true, I love it, I love it, I love it.

Ondine

This movie was so beautiful I can barely handle it. I needed a little magic.

"Here Comes the Sun Again"

I've already mentioned that car and cell phone commercials seem to pick my favorite songs, or if I haven't heard a song and it's on a car or cell phone commercial, I'll probably love it (the exception: pick-up truck commercials).

Well, this commercial is no exception: M. Ward, flowers in hair, running away from everyone, a short white dress, and a rainstorm. I love it.

Latest illustrated Missed Connection, NY.

Check out Sophie Blackall's amazing website, Etsy shop and blog, along with her NY Missed Connections blog.

Charleston really needs to step up their Missed Connections.

Danny & Annie

Danny & Annie from StoryCorps on Vimeo.

From Very Short List

I know I've had a lot of mushy posts out there, but it's not my fault. Some things are just too sweet to pass up, such as today's Very Short List email. Plucks on them heartstrings.

Paradise Lost

(Eve speaks to Adam)


With thee conversing I forget all time,
All seasons and their change, all please alike.
Sweet is the breath of morn, her rising sweet,
With charm of earliest birds; pleasant the sun
When first on this delightful land he spreads
His orient beams, on herb, tree, fruit, and flower,
Glistering with dew; fragrant the fertile earth
After soft showers; and sweet the coming on
Of grateful evening mild, then silent night
With this her solemn bird and this fair moon,
And these the gems of heav'n, her starry train:
But neither breath of morn when she ascends
With charm of earliest birds, nor rising sun
On this delightful land, nor herb, fruit, flower,
Glistring with dew, nor fragrance after showers,
Nor grateful evening mild, nor silent night
With this her solemn bird, nor walk by moon,
Or glittering starlight without thee is sweet.

~John Milton, from Paradise Lost

There's something magical about finding a poetic love letter in your email inbox when you wake up. Thank you, Writer's Almanac, over and over again, for words upon words of perfection, every single day.

From a man in a cool fedora:

The Man's Guide To Love #39 from themansguidetolove on Vimeo.

1. Yes, to everything he said.
2. Everything sounds better in French.
3. Yes.

Sweet summer.

Photograph by Alfred Eisenstaedt for LIFE, 1941



"I wasn't kissing her, I was whispering in her mouth." ~ Chico Marx

Romantic and mysterious.

A romantic and mysterious Missed Connection.

Kids talk about love.

"When someone loves you, the way they say your name is different. You just know that your name is safe in their mouth."
~Billy, age 4

The Essential Man via Naturally Nina

This might be the most perfect definition of love in the history of the world.

"Slip Into Your Skin"

This song makes me sigh.

• Slip Into Your Skin by Patrick Watson

More Patrick Watson music on iLike

"Cause everybody needs somebody to hold them down
When your feet are leaving the ground
Oh everybody needs somebody
To hold them down
When your feet are leaving the ground
Leaving the ground
Leaving the ground
Leaving the ground.

Be the blanket for my bones
Be a place that I call home..."

Love in black and white.

a shot in the dark from Nathan Pickett on Vimeo.

Saw this on The Rockstar Diaries. So stinking adorable. I love the whole look of this, from videographer Nathan Pickett. The girl is due in May!

Swoon. Swoon. Swoon.

Ellie Goulding covering "Sweet Disposition" by Temper Trap:


Also, the latest Modern Love essay, "Signs, Wonders and Fates Fulfilled," made me feel weak in the knees. Read it and then let's talk about it. I can't stop thinking about it.

It's a windy Thursday, so go outside and let yourself be tossed about a little bit. I'll tousle your hair and put some color in those cheeks.

Today I'm daydreaming about...

...sparkly, sequined stockings
...being able to awe everyone at a talent show
...dancing to this song in a ruffly dress with a cute boy
...a scent that is "evocative of all that is urban and French"
...The Exploding Girl
...the Kaleidoscope necklace
...a flock of starlings on my ribs
...sipping a warm drink at Hope and Union or the Fuschia Tea Emporium
...having something like this one day

On the topic of love and romance...

Kate Wilson for Marc by Marc Jacobs

I don't really believe in Valentine's Day in the traditional sense. When you love somebody, you don't need a holiday to find a reason to kiss their kneecaps and write them love letters on scraps of paper. However, I do love love, and if today's the day to talk about love and romance, then so be it--I will:

* I stumbled upon a subtly romantic Missed Connections post from a while back, and this one was quite touching. It's been over 40 years, and she still hasn't forgotten him. I hope he wrote her back, that Poet/Geologist/Old Man.

* "My name is Mel Brooks and I'm going to marry you."

* Urban Outfitters' Modern Lovers contestants are nothing short of adorable.

* Because I am a giant nerd, I will be spending part of my Valentine's Day watching The Young Victoria. True romance:


* "Once upon a time there was a boy who loved a girl, and her laughter was a question he wanted to spend his whole life answering."




In closing, if you love someone, you should hold their chin in your palms, look them straight in the eyes and kiss them. You should always write them letters. Letters that tell them how they make you feel when you look at them or hear their voice. Letters that they will fold up and carry with them. You should cook them their favorite kind of pancakes. You should let them win some fights. You should let them win at Scrabble. But not because it's Valentine's Day--just do it because it's a day that you love someone and they love you back.

And that, friends, is always worth celebrating.

1,001 Rules for My Unborn Son

#410 "Sometimes your best bet is to bet on her."

Sometimes real life is better than fiction...

...but other times, a good Jane Austen adaptation makes reality pale in comparison.

Sally Hawkins is the greatest Anne Elliot. The final scenes of the 2007 Persuasion:




Captain Wentworth's note from the novel:

"I can listen no longer in silence. I must speak to you by such means
as are within my reach. You pierce my soul. I am half agony,
half hope. Tell me not that I am too late, that such precious feelings
are gone for ever. I offer myself to you again with a heart
even more your own than when you almost broke it, eight years
and a half ago. Dare not say that man forgets sooner than woman,
that his love has an earlier death. I have loved none but you.
Unjust I may have been, weak and resentful I have been,
but never inconstant. You alone have brought me to Bath.
For you alone, I think and plan. Have you not seen this?
Can you fail to have understood my wishes? I had not waited even
these ten days, could I have read your feelings, as I think you must have
penetrated mine. I can hardly write. I am every instant hearing
something which overpowers me. You sink your voice, but I can
distinguish the tones of that voice when they would be lost on others.
Too good, too excellent creature! You do us justice, indeed.
You do believe that there is true attachment and constancy among men.
Believe it to be most fervent, most undeviating, in F. W.

"I must go, uncertain of my fate; but I shall return hither,
or follow your party, as soon as possible. A word, a look,
will be enough to decide whether I enter your father's house
this evening or never."

Excuse me...I have to go swoon now.