Happy Friday! Less than two weeks until spring!

[This is so not a favorite. But it works, and I've been battling a sore throat all week.]

Here are some links for you this weekend:

Cute and Hilarious
Love these dogs. "We'll just wait here for you!"
Goats Yelling Like Humans
Betsy did a Seven Little Quirks post like mine and I loved it! Do you have one? I want to know your quirks!

Culture
A hopeful read: Prominent Republicans Sign Brief in Support of Gay Marriage
This broke my heart at first, but I was so happy to see that update when I went to re-read the article yesterday.
Anne Hathaway: In Defense of the Happy Girl
Loved this woman and was so irritated with the interviewer: 10 Questions for Katrin Himmler
The Tyranny of the Queen Bee: this made me wish I were still writing my thesis!
Enough Feisty Princesses: Disney Needs an Introverted Heroine

Pretty Things
These photos are dreamy. Thanks for bringing this to my attention, Sam!
Shannon's blog is so sweet.
I bought myself this sequined collar this week and it's gorgeous! I can't wait to wear it, maybe this weekend. (EDIT: I wore it today! See?)
My friend Eliza just opened a shop full of sweet rugs and other housewares. Pay her a visit!

Literary Stuff
Writers and Kitties. I think it's sweet that Ernest Hemingway makes so many appearances on this blog.
The top ten grammar myths. I love Grammar Girl so much.

Sponsored by WideAngle
It's the fourth (and final) week of the WAALove contest and if you upload a picture of yourself, you can win a Canon EOS Rebel T4i. See details here.

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I'm looking forward to picking Rob up at the airport tonight and spending the weekend together! What about you?

[Sean and I had some sake and sushi on Wednesday at one of our favorite places, Formosa.]

Watching the new season of GIRLS and loving every minute of it. I was so excited when Season 2 started and I have seriously loved every episode so far. I think Lena Dunham is amazing.

Thinking about the trip I'm taking to Detroit next week for work. I'm really looking forward to it because it's going to be such a good experience for me but I'm still pretty nervous about it. I'm amazed at how much my job has pushed me out of my comfort zone; really more than anything else I've ever done so far. I think that's good.

Listening to the second half of the Les Miserables soundtrack. I'm kind of in a musical rut right now--I rotate between Death Cab for Cutie and Regina Spektor albums, which I love, but I haven't really branched out in a while. What's your favorite band or album? I'm ready for something new.

Excited about spring! I know it's still two weeks away but I am ready for sundresses and sandals and long runs by the river and spending weekends outside. Who's with me?

Reading The Evolution of God by Robert Wright. I borrowed it a couple of months ago from my friend Chad and am finally getting around to reading it. It's amazing and so, so interesting.

Loving the way my hair feels after using a coconut oil hair mask on Saturday. I just mixed three tablespoons of coconut oil and one tablespoon of olive oil and my hair still feels super soft and looks really shiny. If I didn't have to shampoo it for twenty minutes to get it out, I might actually do it every weekend.

Drinking lots of hot herbal tea and iced water. It is a constant struggle of mine to drink enough water, and I find that a big cup of rooibos or chai tea a few times a day keeps me hydrated, and then I actually crave really cold water, too. So far that's working, so I'm sticking to it!

Eating so many clementines. They are delicious and as weird as it might sound, I love how easily the peel just comes right off. You rip one open and it's like you're just supposed to be eating them by the box full. 

Missing CrossFit or really any kind of daily workout routine. I find it so hard to exercise enough when I work full-time, and it's really making me feel bummed and even anxious sometimes! I'm hoping that I can get back into running every day instead of just randomly once the weather starts getting warmer.

Making me happy that Rob will be here for the weekend to celebrate our anniversary. It was weird to be away from each other, since usually we go on vacation together to celebrate, but since we're in such a new and different place in life right now, I think this will be just fine. His flight gets in late on Friday evening and on Saturday we're checking in to The Hotel Roanoke for the night. It's not Las Vegas or New York City, but it sounds pretty perfect to me.

What are you up to currently? I want to know!

As always, thank you to my sweet blog-friend Dani for inspiring these posts.

[2010]

From that first Halloween party where we met to the years we spent together in college; through that first stint of "distance" after I graduated and you were a senior at Hampden-Sydney; then the warehouse apartment we shared in downtown Roanoke with the brick walls and the lacquered cement floors; to Charlottesville, and the apartment with the green carpet and tiny little kitchen and noisy upstairs neighbors.

And then you went to China and I moved back to the lake, where you returned after your trip. That summer together before we started our careers; and then to Northern Virginia. And now Minnesota has become part of the story, with plans for flights and twice-a-month visits tucked in between lonely weekends apart. I have fallen in love with you even more, and in different ways through each new season of the past four years.

We have come so far together, and there is no one I'd rather be sharing my life with today.

Happy Anniversary, Rob. You mean the world to me.