the sunday currently of an american girl

My fourth of July involved all of The Best Things: boat rides, barbecues, new friends, wine, George Washington earrings. I hitched a ride to the tiny, charming town of Stillwater with some friends on the fourth to check out a wine tasting, and although my wine knowledge needs a little work ("this tastes like plastic" is apparently not an appropriate thing to say while sipping a red), the winery's deck overlooking the river required no prior wine experience. 

R E A D I N G Americanah. It's nice to be reading a book about Africa that isn't all doom and gloom and genocide. This book is about normal people that live normal lives and do normal things like have crushes and write blogs. Also, fiction is my favorite way to learn about the world -- and pretty much the only way that sticks with me.

W R I T I N G a summer to do list to pin to the refrigerator, so that Y and I can refer to it instead of having the famous "What do you want to do?" "I don't know, what do you want to do?" conversation.

L I S T E N I N G to Jake Bugg today, and liking him. Also listening to Miley Cyrus play over and over again -- UNINVITED -- in my head. 

T H I N K I N G about planes, and how those passengers, and that pilot, must feel today. 

S M E L L I N G my latest perfume. I've decided that I'm going to buy a different perfume each time I run out until someone, anyone, tells me I smell good. I have friends that you can smell coming from a mile away, and I've kind of always wanted to be that person. First step? Maybe not buying perfume that smells like diabetes or is actually men's cologne... I recently realized that my latest find, Fresh Cannabis Santal, is actually cologne. Thanks for the heads up, Sephora cashier. Whatever. I like it. 

H O P I N G that the rain we're expecting tonight holds off until after our date with friends on my favorite patio.

W E A R I N G an Urban Outfitters dress that I bought in Phoenix. I was in Arizona a few summers ago for work. I dropped my bag off at the hotel, and thought it would be an excellent idea to walk around downtown PHX, 95 degrees, in jeans. I toughed it out for a mile or two, until I reached my destination -- lunch for one at Pizzeria Bianco. But on the way back, it was official: I wanted to die. Then Urban Outfitters appeared before me like a mirage and the next thing I knew, I had a new dress. 

L O V I N G barbecues, banana pudding, this advice from Caribou, the cute little neighborhood I just discovered near my work (I see many lunches there in my future), the Indian place we tried for lunch today.

W A N T I N G to go back to Stillwater and explore the Mara Mi store. In the middle of downtown Stillwater, with its old buildings and dusty antique stores, is a modern, airy stationery store/studio/cafe/bakery/bar that I'm itching to go back to. I'm kind of proud of myself; I popped my head in on the fourth of July, realized that if I went in, there was no way I would ever leave, and decided not to go in any further (in the interest of my friends getting home at a reasonable hour). 

N E E D I N G some new shirts for work. My skirt to shirt ratio is maybe 10:1, not including Target t-shirts. Also maybe needing to actually get some work done this week?

F E E L I N G full. See aforementioned Indian buffet. Their vegetable curry was kind of delicious.

C L I C K I N G "my imaginary well dressed toddler daughter", which you've probably already seen. This blogger writes her posts as (hilarious) raps. Genius. 

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