Foraging in Denmark

Dear Optimists,

In Denmark, Nadia has been spending some time on learning how to make sour dough, which is fun for everyone (especially watching it rise).

She is also making food from things she and her family find outside. Imagine that, optimists? Foraging in 2020! These times have created such a unique opportunity to try new things with the family (or whomever you are stuck inside with!)

Nadia’s kids are now showing interest as well. They search for dandelion leaves, nettles (small plants high in vitamins), and more.

Den wasn’t sure what nettles were or how to use them, so Nadia told him.

“They’re a certain type of plant. They sting so you have to be careful. It’s the new shoots of nettles that are good to eat. Collect, wash, dry and put them in the freezer. Smash them up and put it in your dough. Boom. Vitamins galore.”

Sounds like fun! But with Den’s luck he would collect poison ivy by accident.

Love,

Nadia & Den

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Time off

Dear Optimists,

This is us these days!

I’m spending every waking hour at the University, writing essays, articles and yet another thesis. It’s absolutely fantastic and I love every bit of it.

Den is of course busy planning the perfect wedding – as you can see on the picture, he’s very preoccupied.

This isn’t goodbye. Our lives are just so amazing these days that we can’t find time to write all the fantastic things down and draw it up for you.

Don’t worry, we’ll be back… we’re just taking a break.
We’ll miss you!

Love,
Nadia.

To do before I die #1

Dear Optimists,

Last night, I was thinking about what I want to do before I die. All sorts of crazy things came to mind: Scooba diving in Australia, bungee jumping, roadtrips with my future children, drive a Ferrari F40 (red, of course)(childhood dream); all things that won’t happen within a reasonable time frame.

Then I remembered.

When I was a kid, I tried building an igloo. It took forever and I never finished.

In other words, one of the things I want to do before I die is to gather friends and build that godforsaken igloo.

Building an igloo – have you ever tried that? Any pro tips?

Love,
Nadia.

P.S. Typical me realising such thing now the snow’s gone…

Nothing to Say

Dear Optimists,

I have nothing to say today. My lips are sealed.

Ha! My fiancee wishes!

Love,
Den

Traveling alone

Dear Optimists,

Last Summer I traveled to London, England by myself. I needed time to myself and to figure myself out.

Okay, that’s bull. Everybody went on this marvelous festival in Denmark, but it’s mad expensive so I went to London instead for the same amount of money.

I was planning to walk around the streets of London, snapping pictures of all the turisty things:

I expected to meet up with Prince William, tell him a thing or two about Kate. And of course say yes to be his Princess.

Obviously, neither happened. Instead I spent a serious amount of time in bookstores and meeting lots of new people!

When you’re out and about all by yourself, you open up to others in a whole other way than what you’d normally do. Plus the fact that you’ll definitely learn a thing or two about yourself. Have you ever tried traveling by yourself?

This wasn’t my last time traveling all by myself! I

Love,
Nadia.

Questionnare

Dear Optimists,

The other night I found one of those silly questionnares that one always write, but noone ever reads. Except the fact that I did read it. And now you have to, too.

And only because I had the stupidest and most sarcastic answers known to man:

No doubt about it – I must have had a laugh when writing that stuff down!

What are your answers to the exact same questions?

Love,
Nadia.

Tir…zzz

Dear Optimists,

This is what’s going on with me these days:

I’m too tired to function (apparently SO tired that I accidently wrote ‘fuck’). Which is also why I’m using an old drawing of me being just as tired a year ago.

Just one of those weeks, right?

Love,
Nadia.

Nadia, will you marry me?

Dear Optimists,

I often look through which search engines terms led to this little optimistic spot on the interwebs. Most of them are quite ordinary. Such as “how do girls pee”, “meaning for optimistic rocker”, and “flavour of optimistic persons” (!?).

But my personal favourite is “Nadia, will you marry me?”.

I’m very curious about who went on Google and typed in those words to end up here. It’s probably Den pranking me, and not Boyfriend finding new, creative ways of proposing to me, as one might think…

But a girl can dream, right?

Love,
Nadia.

Early Work Day

Dear Optimists,
I love when my work day starts early. Is that gross to you? Disgusting? Unfathomable? Well, shut up because I like it.

This semester on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays I have an 8AM class. Yes, it hurts to get up. Yes, I have to plan ahead and try to fall asleep early.

But it’s so wonderful to get out of work and still have so much of the day.

Love,
Den

P.S. I love that Nadia actually captured what I’m like in the morning with one of my favorite things to say to people in the morning 🙂

Male Bonding

Dear Optimists,

If you read this blog at all, you already know I have a bit of an affinity – oh heck let’s call it what it is – an obsession with Legos. Well, this past weekend I had a $20 gift card to Toys-R-Us and wanted the cool Creator Log Cabin and was in the aisle looking for it when I saw a father/son by the little bagged figures. Do you know them? They’re in a bag and you have no idea which one you get. It’s fun and I definitely buy them when I see them on sale.

So I walk into the aisle and this father and his son have about twenty of the bags laid out on a shelf. I quickly figure out they’re going for the Feel the bag and guess which one is in it theory (which seldom works…I was trying to get the monkey trainer for the longest time but apparently the girl-hair part feels like a monkey), so Elle and I joined them. I wanted her to see the new series (she pretends to care because she loves me).

I said to Elle, “I really want the robot.” The little kid, who had thick glasses, looked up. The dad laughed. “That’s the one we’re trying to get!” “I can understand that…it’s the best one.” “We also want the leprechaun” the kid said to me. We had a little talk with them and I admitted it took luck to get the monkey trainer (yes, I did finally get it) and we had a nice talk with the kid and his dad. It really warms my heart, seeing a moment like this. The dad and son, working together and chasing down these toys, it’s one of those memories the kid will have forever. I hope to be that dad someday.

They ended up in line behind us as I was buying the log cabin (yup! got it!) and as we walked to our car I heard a voice say “Excuse me!” from the van next to our car. I look over and it’s the kid in the back seat.

“We got the robot!” he yelled. His dad and I both laughed, and I said “That’s awesome. I’m jealous now!”

What a trip to the toy store, huh?

Love,
Den