No More Long-Distance And No More Facebook

Posted on July 24, 2014 by Jackie under celebration, Entertainment, friends, Paris, Uncategorized

The Eiffel Tower from the top of the Printemps building in Paris, 2013

Yep, you read that right. Tomorrow I’m waking up at the butt crack of dawn to hop on a plane to spend the next six days with my love and our closest friends from Edinburgh; and I’m canceling my Facebook account.

I don’t know when it started. Maybe it was when Will cancelled his Facebook account two years ago or sometime after that but the thought that I don’t need Facebook kept creeping up. I justified keeping it because of the birthday reminders and the long-distance friendships; but somewhere down the road those reasons turned into excuses. I was still missing birthdays and baby announcements and photos of friends’ travels. Huffington Post and “suggested posts” started crowding my news feed and I didn’t know any of the “people I may know”. Facebook wasn’t keeping me connected anymore, it was just wasting my time (among other things – 1, 2).

A couple of weeks ago a friend of mine told me she was thinking about quitting Facebook. That opened up a discussion about being intentional about what we share on the internet and how we spend our time. It also got me thinking about who out of my 696 Facebook friends would try just a little bit harder to keep in touch. No, this isn’t a test to see who my real friends are but an attempt to bring back a level of intimacy and connectivity I crave in my friendships.

Last week I started the process of letting everyone know and taking down my pictures. It’s been a fun trip down memory lane and, honestly, a little bit anti-climactic. But that’s life: things start and end all the time. So, that’s the long of it.

The short version is I don’t think Facebook is very satisfying. I don’t exactly know what type of satisfaction I’m expecting from Facebook or why I’m even expecting a level of satisfaction from it at all but I’m over it.

Au revoir!

Strollin’

Posted on July 18, 2014 by Jackie under edinburgh, Flowers, food, friends, Market, Park, Weather

Recently Will’s cousin Lindsey, and her friend Megan, went backpacking around the UK (with a side trip to Barcelona) and stopped by Edinburgh at the end of their trip. I loved having them around; especially while Will was gone. The weather was absolutely gorgeous both days so we ended up walking around a lot.

On the Saturday they trained it over to Glasgow for the day while I ran a couple of errands. After meeting up with a friend at Brunel I walked across town to develop some film. Walking across the Meadows always makes me grateful for living in this beautiful city.

Looking at the Quartermile

Middle Meadow Walk

Looking at Arthur’s Seat and the Salisbury Craigs

On the Sunday the girls and I made a big breakfast and then walked to the Stockbridge Market to pick up some food for a picnic at Inverlieth Park (over looking the castle and Arthur’s Seat).

Afterwards we strolled through the rest of the park to head over to the Botanical Gardens.

Yeah, so that was our weekend of strollin’ :)

If you want to learn more about Lindsey’s adventures in backpacking you can read her blog here.

The Stockbridge Market

Posted on July 12, 2014 by Jackie under edinburgh, food, Market

Edinburgh has two year-round markets: The Farmer’s Market on Saturdays and the Stockbridge Market on Sundays. I love both markets and recommend them both to everyone, but a couple of weekends ago I went to the Stockbridge Market so I’m gonna chat about that one.

So, like I said, I went to the Stockbridge market a couple of weeks ago. I had to pick up some raspberry jam for a friend who loves raspberry jam (coughMarkcoughcough) so I thought I’d take some pictures. This might seem weird, but I always feel European when I pick stuff up at a market. Like, I’m just casually picking up homemade doggie treats or exotic cheeses from Italy and Spain to go with the bread I just bought from the German baker a few stalls down. But that could be just me? And I know I’m not alone in loving this market because it’s always crowded.