Monthly Archives: December 2011

December 30, 2011 · 8:23 pm

New Year’s Eve Des Moines

My Facebook feed is full of signs that the caucus is in full swing here in Des Moines. It’s satellite truck season in the city! If only we had a little snow to make it feel more cozy. And if only I were to randomly run into Brian Williams.

Back when I was a member of the “lamestream” media, I spent a New Year’s Eve with Joe and my friend Meredith who was in from D.C. at the Raucous Before the Caucus, a party for credentialed media members with a hosted bar and a fancy atmosphere. This election season, it will be held at the World Food Prize headquarters, which is in the recently renovated old city library. It’s totally gorgeous. My family toured it this fall when it first opened and I could sit and stare at the stained glass all day — especially because it’s such an awesome foundation.

I hope the media continue to be impressed by the momentum we have here in DM. I remember four years ago how surprised everyone was at the positive changes, and I hope they notice the additional strides the city has taken since the last election. Which brings me to what I’m doing on New Year’s Eve!

This year, I’ll be at THE BASH, the Des Moines Social Club’s annual NYE event. I helped plan an element of this year’s Bash: To capitalize on all of the political excitement, we’re hosting a Faux Caucus with five local young professionals vying for the title of “Social Czar.” (What they’re really vying for is funds for the charity of their choice, although everyone gets the opportunity to introduce a platform of their ideas for the city and a cause close to their hearts.)

Tickets are $25 at the door and I will be there, likely manning  button-making/voting station!

The Des Moines Social Club is working to find a new, permanent, home and is hoping to move into the old downtown Des Moines Firehouse. The World Food Prize was able to revitalize a historic landmark in Des Moines, and the DMSC would love to connect the future of the art scene with a building that blends the past with our new energy and creates a hub for the “creative class” to get together and collaborate. I’m looking forward to seeing what we can do in 2012.

Check out “I want DMSC in the Firehouse” for updates.

UPDATE! I was tickled to see my friend (and WFP communications director) Megan Hawkins Forgrave in these Vanity Fair blog post pictures from this year’s Raucous! (Also glad that the post made my book club selection — which lost to The Submission — look like the better choice!)

Annnd, if you have a good time scrolling through photo booth style photos, here are some Joe Crimmings originals from The Bash.

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Aside

Handmade memories

This was the year of the creative Christmas — of making meaningful gifts and memories.

When I was little, I thought Elves lived in our snow village. 

Somehow, we were able to trek to Joe’s family’s near Omaha for a Christmas Eve feast (six different meats!) and by Christmas night, we were eating Beef Bourguignon (a blend of Ina Garten’s recipe and my grandma’s) and toasting with champagne at my mom’s dining room table outside of Chicago. A smooth drive was one plus side to missing out on a white Christmas.

For my mom, I crafted five ornaments that represented things we used to do together:

A paper globe-shaped ornament decorated with Girl Scout stickers, because my mom led Troop 784 from Daisy Scouts through my senior year of high school. (Tutorial here.)

A tiny table (clothespin legs and a paper jewelry box top draped with fabric) complete with a pie, like the ones we used to bake at the local heritage society.

A bicycle wheel made from an embroidery hoop, puff paint, floral wire and hot glue to stand for our rides. (We loved to go out on the MKT in Columbia when I was in college, and even did a ride on a rented tandem there.)

A tiny paper wreath made from an old New Yorker because I felt too bad cutting up an old book. I was hardcore about Battle of the Books when I was in grade school and junior high and my mom was our coach. It was kind of like a knowledge bowl for reading. We read 20 books for it a year, then one night would compete with other Catholic schools in the area. Champions!

A sweater that unfolded to represent the matching ones that we sometimes get around Christmas (I insist, mostly because my mom thinks it’s super dorky!), but also to symbolize the great example my mom set for me.

My mom and brother each made handmade gifts for me, too. Kev showed up my sewing machine skills by crafting me a manatee potholder set, and my mom gave me cards she’s had made using some of her nature photos.

The day after Christmas, we got together with my whole Kelley side of the family and all of the cousins received one of the most memorable gifts of all time: “The Night Before Christmas,” as narrated for us individually by my grandpa. We all dissolved into tears as we opened the books and heard his voice. Grandpa turns 90 this May and was quite pleased to present us with the keepsakes my mom helped him record. (You can get the recordable book through UNICEF.)

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December 27, 2011 · 5:44 pm
December 10, 2011 · 10:19 am

Don’t spend it all at once?

What’s your gift card spending strategy? Are you all about stretching it out and buying a bunch on megasale, or do you see gift cards as a way to go for that splurge you’d never get otherwise?

I used to be the former, but I think I’m turning into the latter — especially when it comes to shopping locally. I’m a huge fan of Des Moines Downtown Gift cards as a way to encourage people to explore all of the unique shops and restaurants in the city and have been lucky enough to be on the receiving end of a few of them, too.

Well, I had been plotting all of the ways I was going to use the sweet Salon Spa W gift card that I “earned” helping them with their Holiday Promenade open house. (If you recall, this was the amazing deal where they made me look like a moviestar so I could delight people with chocolate and champagne for a few hours.) First purchase: the Aveda eye definer. I am in awe of women who have perfect eyebrows. That’s probably super weird, but whenever I get them filled in, it instantly makes me look more put-together. Suddenly I feel like I might be able to look like a lady.

Anyhow, when I stopped in for the eye pencil, makeup guru Gina gave me a coupon for $20 off a facial and suggested I check out the 90 minute options because they incorporate quite a bit of massage. I’m honestly not trying to get all Salon Spa W infomercially, but as I sit in the Village Bean waiting for Ephemera to open up, the tingly sensation on my feet mixed with this Earl Gray lavender tea is taking me to a happy place where I forget that I had to wake up early on a weekend.

I don’t wear makeup alot or often and I’m not a girl who had an arsenal of schmancy beauty products, but there is definitely something to be said for taking some time out to give yourself a little TLC.

If you aren’t able to swing a salon facial (this is my typical route): bath + nice smelling candle + Norah Jones Pandora station + one of those Walgreens minty green masques (when you spell it with a qu it’s fancy). Oh and I totally have on of those wire head massage things that, especially when employed by a love one while you’re sipping a cheap Malbec, can melt away a bad day.

Okay, end of the gift card and the end of my Oprah moment.

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December 7, 2011 · 10:45 pm

The stockings were hung by the chimney this week

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas — at least in this corner of the house!

Joe and I put up our tree over the weekend, lit a fire in the fireplace and are getting into the spirit of things. (Which, of course means Christmas records and hot chocolate.) My favorite thing has always been unwrapping all of our ornaments that have been collected over the years and laughing at how ugly the ones I crafted as a kid are, or telling stories behind ones we got on trips. There’s a bedraggled Big Bird that always goes on the lower branch of my mom’s tree, because as an infant I liked playing with the big yellow feather.

We started — OK, I’ll admit that this was more something I instigated — a tradition last year as a married family that we would sit down after the tree was decorated on (or around) St. Nicholas Day and write each other a letter about favorite memories from the past year and our hopes for the coming year. Then we put them in each others stocking and read them on Christmas, or whenever we open our gifts together. Last year was the first year, and we just wrote them out on notebook paper. This year, we stepped it up to computer paper. I’m going to be a dork and start a scrapbook of them, I think.

Hopefully the letters will become a record of our lives and feelings for each other through the years. I think it’s meaningful to take time to reflect on moments that have impacted us over the year and share our expectations and excitement for what’s ahead. Any new little families out there have freshly minted traditions?

I’m hoping to steal my nieces again this winter break for a few days. Last year, Mia braved her fears and frustration and went ice skating for the first time at the Brenton Skating Plaza! We also had Crab Rangoon Pizza at Fong’s, a pairing that I certainly wouldn’t mind making a tradition this year, too.

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December 3, 2011 · 12:04 pm

Formerly known as

I’ve been thinking a lot about identity lately.

It’s getting hard to keep track of many of my old Facebook friends from college, because each weekend seems to generate a new batch of last names. Changing my name after getting married was never really on the table for me as an adult — although if you peek into my diary from 8th grade, you will probably find rows of Brianne Morgan in experimental cursive. Poor Neil, I was quite obsessed.

I’ve never been close to my Mexican heritage, or my dad’s family, but my mom never changed her name and once I embarked on a career as a writer, I solidified my stance. Joe and I sometimes jokingly combine our last names, though, to collectively RSVP to things, and we get lots of mail addressed to The Jayjacks, which doesn’t bother me. I don’t think it will be very confusing until we have kids whose friends don’t know what to call me. Maybe by then, though, I won’t be in so much of a minority? I decided not to hyphenate based on the same conundrum presented here.

Choosing whether or not to keep or change a name is a totally personal choice — and one that I respect. Sometimes I miss that our tiny family can’t be referred to collectively under simple surname, or I feel like not changing gives the impression that I’m somehow not as committed. Which of course isn’t true.

Anyhow, more marriage, feminism and identity talk was inspired by our book club’s discussion of “The Marriage Plot,” which earned an average of about 6/10 from the crowd. (With a 2 and a 9 rating thrown in for good measure.) Even though I went to college post-’80s, the love triangle relationship angst and drama felt familiar in a way the an English major sets herself up to experience. I wasn’t enthralled with this book like I was “Middlesex,” to be honest. Few of us liked or were intrigued by the characters and their motivations, however much the Romantic women in the bunch (cough, cough) identified with the main character’s early 20s desire to save one guy and have another one who is totally devoted to her on the hook.

On the professional side, I started a new job this week. It’s strange — it feels like I spent the last year in PR in a rebound state after journalism. It’s the identity that brought me to this town in the first place, and how I met many of my friends. Having taken the past 12 months to switch gears and start my MPA and navigate how who I am off-paper translates to my relationship with the community, I’m inspired again. I’m looking forward to becoming part of the nonprofit sector and writing on the side. To live to write or to write to live?

It’s cold and rainy here, which might explain the longwinded musings. Off to pour another cup of coffee!

Oh, and more from various voices on the name-changing conundrum at A Practical Wedding. I’m so excited to participate in the APW book buy next week! (There’s a slight chance I’m quoted in it, too!)

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