(inspired) salad {life}

Perhaps I've mentioned this, but Neel and Callum love their hoagies. For those of you who aren't as Neel would say, "from around here," a hoagie is a sandwich. Neel would say it's the sandwich. The only sandwich, really. I reluctantly send you to Wikipedia for the definition. Reluctant because they call hoagies "submarines," and, as Erin knows: that's just wrong.

So each weekend, when I'm doing the grocery shopping, I get Callum and Neel a hoagie from the deli to spilt for lunch. If Neel manages to see my list, he'll add "hoagie" to it, in pretty ink and draw stars and hearts and balloons around it. Like I need reminding. "A whole ham and cheese on white with provolone, mayo, lettuce, tomato, black olives, banana peppers, pickles, salt and pepper, sliced in half." Every. Single. Weekend.

I've been into the idea of chopped salads lately. I love the scoopableness of them. They feel so substantial. I'm hoping to add more and more chopped salads to our rotation as we move deeper into summer, at least one a week. Anyhoo, at the wine tasting a few weeks ago, we had a salad with chopped ham and cheese, and Neel said immediately that it reminded him of a hoagie.

Lightbulb.

It's easy enough. Chop some romaine. Chop some tomatoes. I used some sweet peppers and some banana peppers (also chopped). Slice some olives, and chop some ham and provolone. Layer delightfully. Because we're in the South, ya'll, we use Duke's mayonnaise. I combined some mayo with a little vinegar and some Italian seasoning, and tossed it with the salad.

It was a paper plate kind of meal, and I couldn't not put little mini hoagie rolls on the side. They were sweet Hawaiian rolls, though. We fancied the stuff up. Rave reviews from all involved, and let me say, these hoagie eaters are hard to please.

so I had a birthday

So I may have mentioned that Monday was my birthday. I felt really off this year. Like April sprung up on me. It's been stealing up all along apparently, and suddenly here it is, and here I am. Older. Great. I ended up with a perfectly lovely day. Each one of your comments was like a star in a constellation of loveliness. It was so nice to recieve throughout the day. Really, really nice. I started off with some phone calls from some far away friends and phone tag with my mom. My facial was...interesting. The Russian woman said immediately, "You haf been in zee sun." Well, I told you all on Monday that I got a little sunburn on my neck at Cal's baseball game. She proceeded to punish me for it for the rest of the facial. Not really. Really.

Had an awesome lunch with my friend Jean who is so sparkly and vibrant. She makes me laugh and laugh. She said something really interesting to me that I'm needing to ruminate on. I'll try to get back to you about it in my Five Things Friday. Callum got home early from school (Neel picked him up so I could have that awesome lunch), and immediately started his homework with no prodding which, I have to say, might be the best! birthday! present! ever! While Cal was working I talked with my mom and my friend Mark. Mark calls me his blogging therapist, although I'm pretty sure I'd demand a refund if my therapist laughed as much as I do whenever we talk. Seriously people, giggling school girls. And that's without wine. All I have to say is that when he finally writes a post about his bathroom, I'm going to link to it, lie down and never write again. Bless his heart.

We had sushi for dinner, which was only meh. It's normally our favorite sushi place, but the kitchen was backed up and things were just off. Still, we came home to prosecco and presents and cupcakes and PRESENTS! My friend Seamane gave me a gorgeous clutch from Hong Kong where she'd just returned from. It wasn't until I'd opened the gorgeous packaging that it occurred to me that she'd brought me something back from Asia, and I thought, DUH. I got an email from a friend I haven't heard from in ages, and that was lovely. My mom gave me a giftcard to Sundance, and I already know wheat I'm going to spend it on (hint: shoes). My dad got me that gorgeous book Fashion. It's HUGE, and I can't wait to sink down and spend some time with it. Neel gave me some gorgeous earrings, and Callum wrote me the most beautiful, heartfelt card. Honestly? That might be the best birthday present ever. But just was we were settling down for the evening, the dogs went crazy as our doorbell rang. My lovely neighbors. My favorite buds came by to deliver a present, a Happy Birthday song, and the sweetest cake. I was so completely taken aback by that and filled with love. These are some of the most important women in the world to me, and I was touched beyond measure that they did this for me.

The fun continued on Tuesday. I know! For a low-key birthday, I managed to extend things quite nicely. After a few hours of work in the morning, I met my friend Tracy for lunch at PF Changs. (And this is really interesting to me. I had lunch at California Pizza Kitchen with Jean on Monday and at PF Changs on Tuesday. Both of those restaurants were my comfort-food go-to restaurants when we lived in California. What do you think that says? That those were the places I wanted to eat? Anyhoo.) Tracy had the brilliant idea to make me choose two entrees and she'd eat whatever I ordered for us (plus lettuce wraps, of course). She can be tricky to feed, so I really appreciated that gesture, and you know what? We had a wonderful lunch! It was such a generous idea and the food was so, so tasty (garlic noodles and moo shu pork). I loved every single minute of it. And they gave me a free dessert for my birthday!

And kids, I went to Sephora. I got a sunscreen (that doesn't smell like sunscreen!) by Shishedo that goes over my moisturizer which I love. Win-win. And perhaps I purchased a lipstick or two. Perhaps. I think I should probably officially declare the celebrating fini now. Bummer. Next year, I'll go all out.