It took a full year of Andrea and I sitting next to each other in classes before we discovered how much we both loved to make things. One of the things she loves to make is decorated cakes, and when I saw some of her icing roses I held her down in a headlock until she agreed to teach me how to make them too. One of the above is hers, and I will refrain from saying which, because frankly it's painfully obvious. The only one that actually looks much like a rose. They are so easy though, and satisfying in the way quick and pretty things that have no other use in the world than to decorate something momentarily are.
After rose making lessons I took her out to see The Descendants. I wasn't expecting Hawaii to remind me so much of New Zealand in its look and feel, and I wasn't expecting it to be such an emotionally nuanced film. It reminded me how important communal story telling is, how we usually only know a small part of the story of someone else's life but are quick to judge in any case, and how very normal it is to find love messy, difficult, and a source of both joy and sorrow.
