Fun Times

The last few weeks have been super duper fun. I have been doing all kinds of fun social things and in combination with the lovely weather I am just so happy. I realize that I am probably the only person on the east coast that would call the record heat lovely, but it turns out that I really am a warm weather person. I am glad to learn this about myself because the winter was so horrible that I would be in a tough situation if I also hated the summer.

The kick off to my social whirlwind started with the Harry Potter premiere.  I went to the midnight show with some friends, but since I hadn't seen the previous movie I first invited everyone over to watch it at my place. I decided this would be an excellent opportunity to try out some recipes that I have been eyeing.  The first is this recipe that claims to be the Mexican Martinis from Trudy's. It passed with flying colors and very much takes me back to Austin. I am sooo happy to be able to make these whenever I want.  And it turns out that once you have a bunch of fresh limes sitting around the house you really do feel the urge to use them before they go bad...  The next recipe I wanted to try was this salsa recipe from Pioneer Woman.  First, if you haven't read her blog you should definitely go do so. I am kind of in love with her.  I've tried a few of her recipes and they are always super delicious.  And she is getting her own show on the food Network in the fall!  But back to the salsa.  I am very picky about salsa. Super picky. I don't like chunks, I don't like onions, I don't like it to taste like watery tomatoes.  The Pioneer Woman seems to share my opinions on the mater, so I thought that this could be the perfect recipe.  It turns out that it is!  That is some super delicious salsa! I ended up using one and a half jalapenos because I had a half left over from some guac, and I thought that was a good heat level. I like heat so I might even go for a full two jalapenos.  I told my mom about the recipe and she also tried it and loves it, so it isn't just me.  The down(?) side to this recipe is that it makes a ton of salsa, so I basically lived on chips and salsa (and Mexican Martinis) for about 5 days. I had people over to watch the Women's World Cup, I went to a friend's house to watch the Bachelorette, I had a friend over for dinner a few times, and I served the salsa for all of the above. It is amazing that I don't get sick of it. Yum.

I also have been having some musical fun. My community band is giving a concert next week, and we have been rehearsing weekly. On Wednesdays it is band rehearsal followed by trivia night, very fun!  New Paltz does a thing called Piano Summer which means a lot of really great free piano concerts.  I went to one last weekend and will go to one tonight, plus I might shell out some money for the upcoming symphony performance of Marriage of Figaro. I also found out that the symphony director has picked Moldau for us to play in the fall, and told me that it has a great flute part for me.  I actually hadn't heard it before, but she is right - that flute part is awesome!  It makes me feel really good that she picked the song knowing how prominent my flute playing would be! (Note, I very easily listened to a recording of it with Spotify. If you haven't signed up for an invite yet you totally should. It is kinda ridiculous to have nearly every song every recorded at your fingertips.)

I have also spent two late nights out on the town in New Paltz. I still run into my students even though it is summer, but I think that it is ok as long as they are not currently in my class.  I will have to stop going out once the school year starts up again, though, sigh.

Lastly, I spent yesterday afternoon at a little swimming spot by a waterfall.  It was so nice to just be outside in the sun and water. I jumped off a cliff into the water, which totally reminded me of doing so on Lake Travis in Austin. I also ate some raspberries off the bushes nearby and just had a great outdoor time. (It apparently was 100 degrees. I loved it. I know, I am nuts.) Afterward my friend and I made tequila lime chicken (to continue the Mexican theme) and had a nice dinner. Pretty much a perfect day.

I am really happy to actually be happy these days (hmm, that makes sense, right?). It has been hard to adjust to things here, and I have not always been happy since I moved. I am pleased to see things turning around! (And hopefully it is not just a summer thing, since much of what I just described was basically trying to recreate Texas here in NY.)