Guess where I'm sitting right now?

My new bed, in my new apartment!

I'm in the middle of moving, and tonight's the first night I've slept here (it's really close to my mom's house, which makes moving a more relaxed process than usual.)

Yesterday, Dewey and I painted my room gray. Today my dad came and painted all the white trim, since he's good at that stuff. I still need to set everything up (not to mention actually unpack my stuff), but I'm pretty excited about my new gray room in my new apartment with my new roommates. Pictures to come, when everything's looking more picture-worthy.

Merry Christmas!

I hope yours is full of cookies and happiness.

Thank you so much for stopping by here, friends. If I could, I would give everyone who reads this blog a whole sidetable full of presents.

P.S. Sarah, Giovanna, and Neo-TRAD, send me your addresses! abigail.cyr{at}gmail.com

I want to send you presents!

You know those blogs that, when they show up in your reader with a new post, make you say "yay!"?* Kitchen Door is one of those ones for me. Katie lives in Boston, too, although she actually lives in the actual city proper, and she's always doing awesome cooking projects, and she has a CSA membership like a real grownup, and her take on the world is just so fresh, and her posts are so great that I apparently resort to run-on sentences when describing them.

Anyway, Katie, and now I, are** participating in the Pay it Forward Challenge. And now I'm participating in the Pay It Forward Challenge. What does that mean for you? It means that the if you are one of the the first three people to comment here, sometime in the near future (but it's not any more specific than that- it's supposed to be a surprise), I'll send you a present in the mail! You then blog about it, too, so the gift-giving fun can continue.

So, who will be my three?

*And Abbie fails at punctuation.

**And grammar.

Today is my mom's birthday.

She is the best kind of mom there is, and Dewey and I are so lucky we got her as ours.

A few reasons I love my mom so much:

1. She loves children. All of them. And taught me to do the same.

2. She would do anything for Dewey and me. Absolutely anything.

3. She is as no-nonsense as they come, but everything she says comes from a place of love.

4. She is so good at being a skinny minny, Harvard Magazine wrote an article about weight watchers and featured her! (That's the picture, up there).

5. When my mom decides that she is going to do something, she does. There is no way around it. She is the most determined person I know.

6. She knows how to have a good time. My mom does more fun things than anyone I know. Today, she and my sister are going Snowshoeing!

Happy Happy, Mommy!

I'm so glad you were born.

{Image borrowed from Harvard Magazine}

Lunch Dates with besties are the best.

A couple of weeks ago, Emily met me at work for a lunch date.

I love lunch dates.

We went to Blunch, which is my favorite place to eat lunch near my office.

They have really delicious sandwiches and salads, San Pellegrino orange soda (which comes with a little cover that you peel off before you open the can, and is the most charming thing in the world for some reason), and checkered plate liners. I love it.

They also have medical textbooks, since they're right by the BU Medical School. Emily read to me about Gout while we were eating. It was less than appetizing.

I finished the lunch date with a latte. It was pretty good, although there was a little too much foam. I live in a world full of high-class problems, I think.

Thanks for coming on a lunch date with me, Em!

Happy Monday!

I've got big plans for this week:

I'm going to get my learner's permit*, I think.

I need to try to do a least a teeny tiny bit of Christmas shopping, so my friends and family receive thoughtful presents, not the usual last minute junk I pay too much money for and they don't like.

I'm moving next week, so this week I need to start packing and pick out a paint color for my new room. Any suggestions? It gets lots of light in the morning.

How about you? Anything exciting this week?

*No, I don't have a driver's license. I keep meaning to get one, and one summer a couple of years ago, I even took driver's ed, but the actually taking the test has always evaded me. This time, I will do it. I swear.

You guys.

Have you listened to Noah and the Whale yet?

I know, I know, 5 Years Time was in a car commercial, but since I only watch TV on the internet, not on an actual TV, I seem to have missed it. Which is good, because it's car commercial-ness would make it less okay to love this song.

And this is a song worth loving.

I would just like to make it known

that I, Abbie,

ME,

Lover of All Junk Food,

just realized that the snack I really wanted right now, as I attempt to power through my to-do list, was NOT my normal go-to late night winter treat of hot chocolate.

No. No no no.

Tonight, the perfect treat? The one I craved above all others?

Leftover roasted broccoli.

(It was pretty delicious)

Here is what is perfect right now:

An iPod (especially if it's playing Noah and the Whale), a fountain pen, and a coffee shop.

Actually, to me, that's perfect almost always.

How about you?

Tonight I walked into the Coop, resigned to two more sleepless nights until I'm finally free of the grip the Twilight Saga has on me, only to discover they don't have it in paperback yet.

(Twilight may be like a drug to me, but it's not a drug for which I'm willing to pay $24.99 plus sales tax.)

The left me with a free evening. Since my mom wasn't going to be home until 9, I had the house to myself. It was a perfect evening for cooking.

In San Francisco, I cooked dinner several nights a week. Since I've moved back here, I've baked a fair amount, but I've only cooked a couple of times. I didn't realize how much I missed being in the kitchen, listening to music, chopping and stirring and tasting.

It was good to do it again.