My Summer Bucket List

The hot days of summer are just beginning, and it is nice to realize that we have all this glorious weather ahead of us. Finally WE have the best days in our region, and I just want to soak all this in, the best way yet. And next year we will try to top what was "achieved" this summer. That's the plan! :)

I noticed that if I make a list of something, it does come true. Perhaps in reality it will take 2 or even 3 summers to do all of this, but eventually we will get to it!

So, here it is - my summer bucket list in no particular order:

• Lots of yummy weekend breakfasts with my hubby 
• Read a book entirely in the back yard
• Kayaking
• See my brother more often
• Patio dinners with with parents and grannies
• Beach day(s)
• Going out to a hot dogs and burgers place for dinner
• Drive-in movie
• Make my own preserves (from berries gathered on a farm)
• Camping with a tent
• Bonfire
• A day on a boat on a lake
• Biking for ice cream, and just biking
• Ice cream social for my neighbors
• Road trip with family
• Lazy days with no agenda
• Belarussian style bacon made over open fire
• Swimming in rivers and lakes
• Learn a few new summer soups and salads
• Sailing
• More photo-sessions with my friend, Yulia
• Hammock in our back yard
• Learn a new pie or cake
• A day in a pine forest to smell it and hear the wind in trees
• Spend quality time with my friends on a join vacation, even just in Belarus
• Visit my childhood summers village - Kopatkevichi, and stay there for at least a week
• Yoga in the park
• Running a half marathon
• Play badminton
• Watch our favorite movie with my friend; the movie we saw at least 20 times, when we were teens 
• Stroll night summer streets and avenues of Minsk
• Visit Cape Cod
• Go whale watching
• Pay a visit to the Pacific ocean along the West Coast
• Attend Ivan Kupala, Belarussian mid-summer holiday
• Fireworks
• Visit London and hear Adele in concert
• Hot air ballon ride
• Fly a kite
• Go fishing

I think this should be a good start. :)

The world spins around you faster when you spin faster yourself!

Ever since we moved into our house I was waiting for the world to start spinning a little slower....

But it never happened. I thought I just need to get through this crazy, busy time and then I will have time to breathe, reflect on our wedding, house buying, house remodeling, honeymoon.... But it never stops, it just spins faster with more things just adding into rotation. 


So, I decided to just blog about things that are happening now and then gradually weave in reflections on oh-so-beautiful and important events of the past 6 months.

So, most recently I visited NYC very spontaneously. And ... fell in love with it again. As I always do. St. Valentine's day is actually, despite the cold, is a perfect time to visit this never sleeping city. This year it also fell on Chinese New Year, so this was a joint celebration. I think I was "drunk" just with pure energy of seeing so many different people in the subway, on the streets, in my most favorite place in NYC - Central Park. I must have been a New Yorker in my previous life - I feel right at home there. 
Here are some iPhone snapshots from the trip:

 

On the Q train, heading to Manhattan

Ah, coffee shops!

  

Hearst headquarters - I work for the company within Hearst, 

BUT we are not within THIS building, .. I wish!

a view from the 29th floor of the Hearst Tower ... oooh!

My favorite place in NYC - Central Park

St. Valentines Day in NYC :)

Shopping! 

After this little NYC LOVE note, I've yet to explain the headline of this post. 

I think we are just used to say that the world spins around us. In reality, though, it is US who are spinning,we just want to accomplish more and more in less and less time. So, really, we control the speed of our life. 

For me the life pauses when I blog - everything freezes in the air for my examination. I missed blogging.

The Honeymoon took a loooooong time. You don't beleive me?

Hm..... I am back again. From the honeymoon. Yes, it took 2 months. ..... !

Ok, I am a bad lier, and feel guilty that during this period of my life - wedding, moving into a new house, honeymoon and first holidays as a family  - I didn't blog. Clearly, it is  a crime, at least for my own sake.

To make up for this major miss I am going to be putting the pieces together in the next posts and recreating the beautiful picture of this fall's happenings.

For a sneak peak - Thailand, of course. The most beautiful beaches I've ever seen... So far... :) !

Reading is like living a double life

I love to read. Most of my middle school and high school summers I spent under an apple tree on an old coat (serving as a mat) in my grandma's garden. I actually don't read, I "watch" what happens with the main characters in the books. "Watching" is possible if the book is well written, of course.
Here are the latest of my "second life" journeys:

1) Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand - I have been reading it almost constantly since last September and just finished it - the slowest read of my life, but also, one of the most mind-opening, thought provoking, implacable in language, full of discoveries. About life, goals, happiness and love. Simply one of the best books I ever read.

2) Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger - I always thought that it would be very interesting to travel in time, but after I watching "Back to the Future" I realized that we could alter our present if we do something in the past. The author of this book explores a different idea: what if nothing can be changed in the past or future, and you can only watch what happens, you don't have the control over "when" you are traveling: how are you supposed to live your live, have a family when you are time traveling?... Interesting!

3) Free Food for Millionaires by Min Jin Lee - a story about a foreigner fitting into American culture, Wall Street and figuring out how much of her own Korean culture she should really reject and how much IS she really different from her family. The storyline is not that twisted, but if not for life's wisdom, this book is a good read for its language and the way the story is presented. In the introduction of this book I read that the author is a fan of Russian classics and uses traditional to Russian literature way of unveiling the story - in each scene the reader learns about his and hers feelings and thoughts. No wonder I liked the book so much!

4) Anna Gavalda's "I wish Someone Were Waiting for Me Somewhere", "Someone I loved" and "35 kilos of hope" - this new french author's creations remind me the ones from my favorite Russian author Victoria Tokareva - simple truth of life through the finest lace of the language.

What are yours latest best reads?

Simple Pleasures of Home on A Saturday

I love the home we made of our apartment. Here are little things that make our home so cozy for me:

Our new white & fluffy blanket:

Colorful balcony rug and brand new greenery outside:

We found a color match for our red chest at the end of the bed...

These curtains immediately played up the presence of the chest in the room!

Ok, back to wedding planning: bridesmaids dresses, cakes, officiant (!). Happy beautiful long weekend!

I got into a fight!

Saturday night I got into a fight! I never thought I find myself at the boxing arena, but there I was!

See what wedding planning can do to a perfectly friendly and kind person, like everybody knows me?

Just kidding! Our wedding planning is going very peacefully and productively. More about it in the next post. Today I just wanted to share a unique event I got myself into this weekend.
The company that I work for, White Directory Publishers (brand name The Talking Phone Book) sponsored a kickboxing fight.

Aware of my talents not only as a marketer, but also as a photographer, my boss asked me to take photos at the event. "Ssssure!", I said. "I am up for a challenge!" At work they are already sure of my professionalism, and I am working hard to keep this belief :))

Did you know that a kickboxing event is a pretty formal gathering? Cocktail dresses, stilettos. I didn't know that myself. So now we know!

There was a bunch of guys fights and one girls fight! We were lucky to go to the bathroom at the right time just to catch one of the fighting girls braiding her hair in perfect patterns. While she was doing that, she answered a few questions for us. We learned that a cool thing to do in a fight is to answer a punch with a punch that is a level better - this is how you earn your score.

The main fight and the reason for the event was a fight called "Back with a Vengeance".

The team I was routing for won! Here are moments of joy and glory:

Congratulations from a very strong opponent.

Events like this always remind me that we should try new things all the time, even if in the beginning it seems to be not your "cup of tea". I arrived to the event expecting a long, boring night. It turned out a great and memorable experience!
To see a complete set of photos from the event - follow this link.

Update: after I wrote this post, my very talented friend Yuka has also finished hers on the same event. Shooting along with Yuka and her husband Liosha that night made the event so much more fun! Check out their fabulous work.