Good morning from an extra cold and super windy Sunday at the lake!

On Saturday morning we got some snow, and I was actually supposed to go into the office for a few hours starting at 8:30 but when it was time to leave I couldn't even get out of my driveway! Luckily it cleared up by the afternoon, and my family, Rob, and I went to see Les Miserables, which was so beautiful, before stopping by the grocery store to grab a few things. Then at 5:30 I had a few of my close friends from work come over (a  lot of them haven't met Rob yet) and we had dinner and drinks and it was just the best time. Patrick and Chad are in town, so they came over from next door, and it made my heart so happy to see my old friends have such a great time with my new ones. I went to bed tired from dancing and laughing and feeling so, so happy.

[Saturday was a soup-for-breakfast kind of day.]

I know it's not Friday, but I wanted to share a few links from things I've loved over the past few days.

I have two pieces of blog-related business first:

I hit the 1000 mark this week with GFC readers, and I thought that was amazing because it was actually one of my resolutions for this year. Just in time! I'm so excited and so thankful for all of you who actually come to this blog and read what I have to say every day. You're all amazing.

If you'd like to place an ad on Freckled Italian this year, please know that you can save 13% on any size space from now until New Year's Day with the code 2013. Take a look at my sponsorship page to make it happen, and if you have any questions or comments, just send me an email!

Why We Love "Les Miserables" despite its miserable gender stereotypes. I can't wait to see it again. And then maybe again. And then get the soundtrack.

Kelly posted her first vlog, which reminds me that I haven't done one in a really long time! I'd like to put a few together soon. And good luck, Kelly, in training for that half-marathon!

What's Your Perskinality? I took the quiz and got "Lucky and Lovely." I'll take it!

I've been reading my way through my copy of Blasphemy, which I was pleasantly surprised to learn is much larger than I thought it would be. I can't recommend Sherman Alexie's work enough--the first time I read anything by him was in high school and it actually changed me. He is so talented and writes some of the most hilarious, most depressing, most beautiful stories I've ever read.

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Rob and I are heading to northern Virginia this afternoon for the New Year! We're going to a thing with some friends from college to celebrate (that's really about all I know about it--I hear there's a buffet, though!). What are your New Year's plans?

Winter.

I drove from Charlotte, North Carolina to Roanoke, Virginia on Wednesday night, and as the winter rain came down onto the road and onto my windshield, fogging up the glass and making me shiver in my coat and turn up the heat, I thought about the summer of 2012.

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Rob had just finished his coursework at UVA and I was almost done with my master's thesis from Hollins, and we packed up our apartment in Charlottesville and went to the lake for the weekend. Then, with nothing really to do, we went down to Charlotte for a few days to visit his parents before making the trek back up, past Roanoke, this time to DC. It was the end of May and it was hot and muggy and the summer rain came down onto the road and onto my windshield, fogging up the glass.

Summer.

Rob went to China that summer and I moved back into my parents' house, hell-bent on finishing my thesis. I remember that airport goodbye so well--Rob's bags, the skirt I was wearing, the flip flops on my feet and the feeling of uncertainty that crept through me as we kissed goodbye. This is it, I thought, the end of our planning so far. I didn't have a job yet and I wasn't even done with my graduate program, but when he came back from China, he'd be done and he'd be with me at the lake until he left and after that point, we'd be apart.

I can't remember the moment I first really knew that Rob and I were always going to be together--it's just something that sort of settled in naturally, creating a pocket of belonging and joy in my life that I never questioned.

So he went to China and I got a job in Roanoke and he came back and then he left for Northern Virginia, and it wasn't ever an issue. After years of being near and living together, being apart and living away was just the new thing that we did so that we didn't have to say goodbye.

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As I drove north from Charlotte this week and the rain came down, the Cloudy Day Nostalgia that hit me felt different than I had expected it to. It was new. As though that road ahead of me was winding with possibility after possibility and one good thing after another.

I'm back home and only about half-ready to jump back into real life--I can't say I'm too upset about this two day week leading into another long weekend, though! Arizona was a nice change of pace, and although most of the pictures I took were with my phone, I did take my camera out a few times to snap a few decent ones.

Hope you all had a wonderful holiday!
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(See a bit more from Arizona here.)