My mom and I spent Friday night and Saturday morning next door, watching over Reese the Australian Shepherd and Nana. It was a relaxing change of pace, and I even left my computer at my house and forced myself to unplug for a little while. On Saturday afternoon, my mom and I ventured to a Goodwill where we bought cool plates and I found some vintage dresses, and then we grabbed lunch before heading back home again. I had dinner and drinks with three of my friends, came home a little late, slept in on Sunday morning, and spent the afternoon by myself with books and candles and some recipe-writing.

Sunday was a little lonely at first, but it's nothing that a chat with Rob and a bubble bath can't fix.

So far, so good.

  

How was your weekend?

Well, we're almost a week into the longer-distance thing. I realize that I've sort of talked about it every day this week, but it's also sort of been on my mind this week, so I hope you'll bear with me for a few more days. I think the weekend will be a little strange, but I've got a list of things to do that I think will keep me occupied. 

As much as I miss Rob already, I'm trying to really make the most of this time: I've been running regularly again, going to bed early, reading, writing, and just doing lots of things that I wasn't doing very much of in the past weeks. It doesn't really make sense to me yet, since Rob was in no way hindering my productivity (I mean, we were still four hours away even when he was in Virginia); but in a way, being a little more on my own has inspired me to be a little more productive with my time. 

I don't know if it's going to stick, but I'd like to take advantage of the distance and create some good habits for the long run.

And I just have to say thank you so much, from the bottom of my heart, for all of your well-wishes and support regarding Rob's move and the distance between us. It's a pretty amazing thing to feel such love from so many people, most of whom I've never even met. Thank you.

[My mom and I took Rocky to our favorite park last weekend. I think I'll go again tomorrow.]

I have lots of links for you this Friday! I like doing these posts every two weeks instead of one, but then I end up bookmarking way too many things. I actually had to organize these so I didn't just throw a bunch of stuff at you:

Food
Loved this: Gluten-Free, Whether You Need It or Not.
I can't wait to make this soup. My goodness.

Fashion
You can take an additional 20% off of all sale items at Jigsaw London until Wednesday with the code FreckledItalian7596.
I want to wear this dress everywhere.
I am still loving everything about Everlane and I want every single thing in their shop.

Blogs/Blogging
Emily at Anna Delores takes some of the most gorgeous photos. I wish I lived closer so we could have a session!
I've been having so much fun watching real-time analytics of my blog with GoSquared.
Kristin has an awesome feature called "For the Love of a Linguaphile" and I love it, but this post was definitely my favorite one so far.

Instagram
I think Instagram-recaps are such a fun way to get a glimpse into bloggers' lives, and Kayla's made me smile.
My friends Matt and Tony have three pugs, and Tony started an Instagram feed for them. It's awesome, and you should probably follow them here.

Good Reads
It gave me so much hope to read about Megan Phelps-Roper leaving the Westboro Baptist Church.
Another interesting, hopeful read: My Coming Out as a Friend of Dan Cathy and Chick-fil-A.
Silent reading isn't so silent--at least not to your brain.

Hilarious
Chris Brown "Deserves Respect," Says Chris Brown: what a joke!
Saw this on The Rumpus and laughed out loud: Shakespeare quotes that sound like 1990s hip-hop lyrics.
Don't worry so much, Bunny Foo Foo.

Enter to Win
And finally, some giveaways I'm in on: this one and that one.

--

Have a wonderful weekend! My brother is home and I'm really looking forward to relaxing around the house for a few days.
Feel free to leave me some links you love in the comments!

[Really into bed-time snacks these days.]

Watching old episodes of Mad Men--my parents have gotten really into it, and even though Rob and I have watched almost all of it, it's really cool to go back and watch Don Draper's character progress. I can't get over how amazingly written and put-together that show is--re-watching it is like re-reading a really good book.

Thinking about the distance between me and Rob, a lot. Yesterday I actually looked at a map and it kind of blew my mind. There's like half of the country between us! I obviously know where Virginia and Minnesota are, but until yesterday I hadn't really looked at it with the perspective that I have now. It's crazy.

Listening to Codes and Keys by Death Cab for Cutie. I think it's one of my favorite albums. (I listen to Monday Morning practically on repeat and who knows, maybe I like to think that Ben Gibbard wrote it about me.) It reminds me of the summer of 2011 (which feels a lot further away than it is), my last semester of graduate school, and moving to Charlottesville. It's funny, because that was one of the hardest seasons of my life so far, and yet I look back on it today with a smile.

Excited about my first visit to Minneapolis! I'll be there very late on Valentine's Day and am staying until Sunday. I actually tried to switch my flights around last night because we realized a little too late that Rob actually has that next Monday off, but it was like $350 to change my reservation. Ridiculous. But anyway, it will still be so nice to spend a weekend together and get to know his new neighborhood!

Reading the last essay in On Booze by F. Scott Fitzgerald. I read this little tidbit from The New York Times in the back of the book and I think it's perfect: "More than any other writer of those times, Fitzgerald had a sense of living in history."

Loving the time I have to spend with my sweet dog. I haven't written about it yet, but Rocky is having quite a few health problems. He's about thirteen years old and I know that like us, dogs don't live forever, but I'm having a hard time with it. I'm trying really hard to take advantage of the time we have by going on walks together and giving him extra kisses and belly scratches.

Looking forward to the weekend! I have no real plans but a big to-do list that includes, but is not limited to taking some photos, writing an article for a magazine, and putting together a Valentine's-themed recipe for next week. Here's to productivity!

What about you? If you write a Currently post, let me know and leave a link in the comments! As always, many thanks to my beautiful blog-friend Dani for inspiring these posts.