Encyclopedia of Me - S (Stacy)

Photos from: wikimedia.org, lobstahbox.com, foodcreatespoop.wordpress.com, www.atlanticrecords.com, moviepilot.com, nocookie.net, amazonaws.com, ytimg.com

So many good ones for this letter! How to choose?!? I'll combine words and sneak more in, that's what I'll do. Because I'm smart and sneaky and sassy like that. And I'll be great at it or my name's not Stacy! Oh, speaking of names, I'll just go ahead and mention that two of my close friends' names begin with the letter 'S,' too (*waves at Sherri and Sam!*). Okay, here we go . . .

So, several of these are going to get grouped together under "geeky," because there are several geeky things I enjoy that begin with the letter 'S.' Like Star Wars. Oh my god, I was so excited to see the new one in the theaters. Even though I've loved Star Wars for nearly two decades, I must admit that I didn't see them in theaters growing up. I was introduced to the original 3 by my husband soon after getting married and I loved them! Then I learned to love the prequel 3 through my son's love of Star Wars. And now the whole family is enjoying the new movies together. Mark took each one of us to the theater individually (just the way it worked out - he saw it 3 times in the first 24 hours) and when he and I were watching and the scrolling words started, I squealed, "I've never done this before!" and then loved every minute of it. I also geek out on Sherlock and love to watch the show (big fan of both Benedict Cumberbatch *and* Martin Freeman). There's Sheldon on "The Big Bang Theory," a show that celebrates geekdom (woot!). And just to keep it well-rounded, I also enjoy geeking out on Shakespeare. I took several different Shakespeare classes in college and have read and watched many plays since then for fun. And I'm happy that Mark and the kids love the Bard, too. For real. We even recently saw a presentation of "Hamlet" from London with Benedict Cumberbatch in a local theater near us. The very next week, we went to see a local college's presentation of "Macbeth." It was awesome.

An "Encyclopedia of Me" post wouldn't be complete without mentioning food if it fits and oh does it fit. This one is another two-fer: seafood and sushi go hand in hand. Sushi is my favorite food and most any day, I'm happy to choose seafood over just about any other selection. Our family enjoyed a seafood feast about a week ago to help us break up this cold, snowy winter - crab legs, lobster, shrimp, clams, stuffed quahogs, etc. It was fabulous. When we go to the beach every year, we always go to Claws and have a feast of shellfish - it's hours of cracking and dipping in butter and it's scrumptious. Mark is always so sweet to do a bunch of the cracking for us. The kids are getting older and do more of it, so that helps. :) And tonight, we had 3 different kinds of fish - trout, swordfish, and seared tuna. Even the sides were yummy! My very favorite date to go on with Mark is going out for sushi. It's one of the first dates we went on when we got back together again after being across the globe from each other for 3 and a half years. I loved it then. And I love it now. And sushi is how we ring in the new year, too. Yum!

How about some music references? I like so many different kinds of music - 80s, alternative rock, pop, jazz, classical. For the purposes of this post, I'll list Sinatra, because that crooner voice and swagger just makes me swoon and old blue eyes has some wonderful standards that I love to listen to whenever they come on. Also? Ed Sheeran has got to be one of my very favorite artists - what an incredible talent in singing, songwriting, and performing! He makes me all melty for sure. I'm so happy he won a Grammy, plus how adorable are his parents? I'll throw in the movie "Say Anything" here, too, because it just may be the movie that made me fall so hard for John Cusack and his sweet, geeky ways. That iconic boombox scene is actually a pretty short, passing one in the movie, but he's a gem throughout the entire film. Ahhhhhh, lots of swooning in this paragraph.

Now, places. I was raised in Swansea, MA. Yep, that's my hometown. One of my favorite cities in San Francisco, CA which to me is romantic since that's Mark's big city. The mantel in our room has two framed city skylines - San Francisco and Boston, our cities. And I'm completely in love with Stars Hollow, CT and would move there in a minute. In fact, a few seasons into my first time seeing Gilmore Girls, Mark and I started some serious research into small towns in Connecticut.

Some of my very favorite things I enjoy start with 'S,' like summer (oh, how I love the sun and wearing sandals!), and scrapbooking (though I haven't done much in years), and several games including Settlers of Catan, Splendor, and Sueca.

I've saved this paragraph for one very special creature and one of my very favorite 'S' words - Scout! I love this dog more than words can say. Her name, of course, comes from one of my very favorite books, To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. Scout brings us so much joy, so many smiles, so much laughter, so much love, so many kisses and cuddles and snuggles. She is an absolute bundle of joy in our home and we love her so much that we often SQUEEEEEEE all over the place. She gets so excited whenever she sees us. She licks our tears when we're sad. She snuggles with us every evening and all night long. She cracks us up with her sass and demands and general craziness. She has so much personality and is so protective of us and our home. I never, ever, ever could've guessed that I would ever, ever, ever feel this way about a dog. I positively adore her. She is my safe place and I'm so very grateful for her.