it's been a while for me, but i'm still kickin'! i'm getting a little bitter about the seasonal job thing again. the thought of working at ski school for another winter makes me want to throw the covers over my head, refuse to get out of bed and cry into a pint of ice cream. however, i'm able to balance out my mood with the excitement of the holidays. that's what i wanted to talk about.
the holidays. i LOVE the holidays! the magic, the lights, the movies, the music, the togetherness. it's my favorite! having a house that feels a little more like a home helps too. this year, i kicked off the holiday season by hosting a spectacular thanksgiving dinner that, get this, i made ALL BY MYSELF. yep, that's right! im pretty proud of it. turkey, dressing, green beans, mashed potatoes, the whole shebang! i have to give some credit to luke too. he helped, especially with cleaning up behind me so we didn't have a huge mess when everything was finished. all in all, it couldn't have been much better! all of the food turned out pretty well, especially considering it was a first for a few of the recipes i tried. i feel that i've completed some domestic rite of passage and that makes me happy. it was also luke's first "official" thanksgiving dinner in 12 years. he usually works and gets a plate from the restaurant there or a plate of leftovers, which he refused from me last year, but this year, he was up with me bright and early to make my coffee while i prepped the turkey. i feel very thankful that i could be a part of his first thanksgiving in a while.
thanksgiving has always been my most tolerable holiday away from my family. i think it's because i've always been a part of a large thanksgiving dinner here. when you can bring people together who would otherwise be alone on a holiday and send them away with a full stomach and a little taste of home, it makes you feel good. you feel like you've done something for someone else and that takes away some of the longing for your family. christmas is a bit harder, but that's another story. this thanksgiving was smaller, but more personal. we just had a couple of people over instead of the 20+ i've had in the past. it was nice to give and to share that same feeling of home to people i'm really close to. even though i missed my family, i feel that god richly blessed me with the people i spent thanksgiving with. it's nice to be at a point where i've narrowed down the acquaintances i used to party with to friends i share my life with. for that, i'm thankful.
i also got a good start on my christmas shopping :) we don't really have black friday here, but i participated online and that'll do for now. it's also luke's first "real" christmas in a while so i'm going a little overboard. i'm turning him into santa too. i don't care what he says, he's just as excited as i am and why shouldn't he be...
IT'S THE MOST WONDERFUL TIME OF THE YEAR!
oh and here are a couple of the hit recipes i used on thanksgiving. they're easy and delicious!
lemon garlic green beans
mac and cheese
that mac and cheese isn't easy on your waistline, but boy was it good! my friends asked if they could come over for leftovers for 3 days after thanskgiving. i used 6 slices of turkey bacon instead of ham. that probably brought the calorie count per serving down to 955 from 1055. :)
ENJOY!
Tuesday, December 1, 2009
giving thanks...
in the spirit of thanksgiving, xerox has created this website. go there, pick out a card designed by a child in the us, they print it and mail it to a us soldier fighting in the middle east FOR FREE. it doesn't get much easier, folks. GO THERE. NOW!
LETS SAY THANKS!
thanks xerox and thanks soldiers! happy holidays to you and yours!
LETS SAY THANKS!
thanks xerox and thanks soldiers! happy holidays to you and yours!
Monday, September 28, 2009
you can call me nancy...
as i've mentioned in previous posts, i try not to be so negative. i think i do this mainly because i know all of my blogger friends and i don't want you to think that i absolutely hate life. however, since most of you do know me, you probably already know that i'm sarcastic and sometimes bitchy, but "mostly upbeat". it's just my personality and my sense of humor. that being said, i'm just going to throw it out there...i think the world is completely going to shit!
now i know that's harsh, but the times we live in aren't good. we've got a lot on our plate. national debt, individual debt, healthcare, education, war and that's just in our country. we often forget about the rest of the world. just here in america, the economy is crap. the government is crap. the morals of society as a whole are crap. i think it's that last one that really gets me. noone trusts anyone anymore. how do we expect to band together and fix the mess we've gotten ourselves into when people think the way they do? selfishness and greed that passed down through the generations. that's what got us here in the first place. it's morphed into this hideous monster that controls the world. how can things get better when kids grow up thinking nobody loves them? when they're worried about being too fat or ugly in the first grade? when a 12 year old thinks the best way to get attention is having sex? when people start off what should be a life-long commitment by referring to it as their "first" marriage? when the majority of the population picks quantity over quality?
it's people that matter most, not things. period. if we hadn't allowed ourselves to lose sight of that, i think we would be in a much better place right now. well, duh! that's pretty obvious. however, i think we need to remind ourselves of that in our own lives. daily. i'm guilty of letting greed and material things take over sometimes too. i have actually been plagued over the last two weeks with an uncontrollable urge to shop. it's bad. for real. anyway, back to the subject at hand, seeing as how i personally know each of you and where you come from (for the most part), i know you value family and friends and hopefully just others in general. we're raised with that understanding. coming from this background, i think we take these things for granted. we think that everyone grew up as loved as we were. that everyone was blessed with the unbelievable bonds of friendship that we have experienced over the years. we don't really look at the options of changing the whole world from smalltown, usa. we don't have to. we have zeb for that ;) seriously though, i'm not saying give all your money to the shoeless kid in africa or even st. judes hospital. although both of those commercials almost always bring tears to my eyes. i just think we need to realize what we all have that others don't and be willing to show that to them. i believe there is good in everybody. some people just require someone who cares enough to work through all the bad before everyone else can see the good and before they can develop a new way of thinking. fortunately for us, we haven't needed that as much as other people might.
i'm laughing out loud now as i realize that my post has come full circle. what started as a rant about the shitty world we live in has now turned into a feeling of warmth and comfort in how lucky i am. i know each of you probably feel the same way. so i guess that's our answer. we may not be able to change the views of the world or our sadly corrupt nation. we can't pay off those trillions of dollars or make sure everyone has healthcare and freedom without insanely high taxes, but we can remind ourselves of how lucky we are to have the morals we have. we can do something to make ourselves realize how much we love the people in our lives. we can do something to let them know that everyday. we can pray that we get the opportunity to show it to someone who doesn't know that that exists. even if it's just one person, maybe that will come full circle too. maybe the morals of society will stop going down the tube one person at a time. maybe i'm not-so-negative nancy...
now i know that's harsh, but the times we live in aren't good. we've got a lot on our plate. national debt, individual debt, healthcare, education, war and that's just in our country. we often forget about the rest of the world. just here in america, the economy is crap. the government is crap. the morals of society as a whole are crap. i think it's that last one that really gets me. noone trusts anyone anymore. how do we expect to band together and fix the mess we've gotten ourselves into when people think the way they do? selfishness and greed that passed down through the generations. that's what got us here in the first place. it's morphed into this hideous monster that controls the world. how can things get better when kids grow up thinking nobody loves them? when they're worried about being too fat or ugly in the first grade? when a 12 year old thinks the best way to get attention is having sex? when people start off what should be a life-long commitment by referring to it as their "first" marriage? when the majority of the population picks quantity over quality?
it's people that matter most, not things. period. if we hadn't allowed ourselves to lose sight of that, i think we would be in a much better place right now. well, duh! that's pretty obvious. however, i think we need to remind ourselves of that in our own lives. daily. i'm guilty of letting greed and material things take over sometimes too. i have actually been plagued over the last two weeks with an uncontrollable urge to shop. it's bad. for real. anyway, back to the subject at hand, seeing as how i personally know each of you and where you come from (for the most part), i know you value family and friends and hopefully just others in general. we're raised with that understanding. coming from this background, i think we take these things for granted. we think that everyone grew up as loved as we were. that everyone was blessed with the unbelievable bonds of friendship that we have experienced over the years. we don't really look at the options of changing the whole world from smalltown, usa. we don't have to. we have zeb for that ;) seriously though, i'm not saying give all your money to the shoeless kid in africa or even st. judes hospital. although both of those commercials almost always bring tears to my eyes. i just think we need to realize what we all have that others don't and be willing to show that to them. i believe there is good in everybody. some people just require someone who cares enough to work through all the bad before everyone else can see the good and before they can develop a new way of thinking. fortunately for us, we haven't needed that as much as other people might.
i'm laughing out loud now as i realize that my post has come full circle. what started as a rant about the shitty world we live in has now turned into a feeling of warmth and comfort in how lucky i am. i know each of you probably feel the same way. so i guess that's our answer. we may not be able to change the views of the world or our sadly corrupt nation. we can't pay off those trillions of dollars or make sure everyone has healthcare and freedom without insanely high taxes, but we can remind ourselves of how lucky we are to have the morals we have. we can do something to make ourselves realize how much we love the people in our lives. we can do something to let them know that everyday. we can pray that we get the opportunity to show it to someone who doesn't know that that exists. even if it's just one person, maybe that will come full circle too. maybe the morals of society will stop going down the tube one person at a time. maybe i'm not-so-negative nancy...
Monday, August 31, 2009
it sure feels good to finally feel the way i do...
now i'm not usually the type of girl to tell you all about my day. for me personally, i don't feel it's necessary for me to write down everything i do to share with you. i'm single and childless. i have no words of wisdom, not many anyway, and most of you would be bored to tears with my day-to-day activites. i write to get things off my chest. it feels good to put my thoughts and feelings into words sometimes. ultimately, this post, too, is a reflection of those thoughts and feelings. however, it will be presented in the form of my absolutely, positively fabulous sunday...
first, i'll start by letting you all know that bow hunting season here in colorado started on saturday. most of you are familiar with the importance of hunting season, but for those who may not be, this means i will not be seeing much of lucas for the next month. he had to work saturday so his adventures were not scheduled to begin until 4 am sunday. i've never seen a grown man so excited. he was like a seven year old trying to go to sleep on christmas eve. he got himself so worked up after working two 14 hour days that he couldn't sleep at all. at 4 o'clock he decided it would be best to wait until the afternoon so he could suppress some of the exhaustion that was quickly catching up with him. even though i felt bad that he hadn't slept a wink, this was a pleasant surprise for me. sleeping in is a very, very rare occassion for us. for the ten months that we have been together, we have always worked opposite schedules. i could count the number of days we've had off together on one hand. it was the best 4 am start to my day that i could possibly ask for.
after rolling out of bed at what seemed like afternoon hours, but really it was 10 am, we headed for city market to buy breakfast food and went back to my empty house. (i failed to mention that i've had company for the past week and they left for a bluegrass festival for the weekend and that my roommate is in nc for the next week.) i made breakfast for my still sleepy-eyed boy, while he caught up on sports news online and relayed the important stuff to me. we ate our breakfast at the table and i left the dishes in the sink to be cleaned up later. we sipped coffee and watched a tnt sunday morning movie then i sent him off to woods scentless and camoflauged.
i thought about getting motivated, but decided against it. i picked up the book i just started reading. it's called redeeming love by francine rivers. i highly recommend it. it's an amazing love story based on the book of hosea in the bible. i'm so addicted to it and boy does that feel good. i'm not going to pretend i've been the best christian or even a remotely decent one over the past few years. i still don't have a church here in steamboat. i've actually only been twice. there's noone to blame but myself. shame on me. anyhoo, great book. you should go get it...NOW!
i interrupted my reading with a little nap on the couch. when i woke up, i contemplated getting motivated again, put some dishes in the dishwasher and decided against further motivation for the second time. there was a storm blowing in and i picked up where i left off in my book as the thunder rolled through the yampa valley. perfect reading weather :)
i finished up a chapter just in time for army wives. while i watched, i had myself an oversized mug of light mint chocolate chip ice cream. after another fantastic episode was complete, i finished up my lazy sunday with a cherry blossom bubble bath and more reading.
now there's nothing particularly special about any of those activities. it wasn't exciting or adventurous. it's doesn't make for a great story. sorry. however, it made for a spectacualr sunday for me. i think the best part of it all is that it's these little things that make me happy now. maybe it goes back to my edge of reason post. maybe it doesn't matter what you're doing. what matters is the relationship you have with those around you and yourself. i feel like i'm on the right track for both. bloody marys and breakfast from creekside are good, especially for your hangover from saturday, but doing nothing with no hangover, that's so much better. that's what i love about sundays! it sure feels good to finally feel the way i do...
first, i'll start by letting you all know that bow hunting season here in colorado started on saturday. most of you are familiar with the importance of hunting season, but for those who may not be, this means i will not be seeing much of lucas for the next month. he had to work saturday so his adventures were not scheduled to begin until 4 am sunday. i've never seen a grown man so excited. he was like a seven year old trying to go to sleep on christmas eve. he got himself so worked up after working two 14 hour days that he couldn't sleep at all. at 4 o'clock he decided it would be best to wait until the afternoon so he could suppress some of the exhaustion that was quickly catching up with him. even though i felt bad that he hadn't slept a wink, this was a pleasant surprise for me. sleeping in is a very, very rare occassion for us. for the ten months that we have been together, we have always worked opposite schedules. i could count the number of days we've had off together on one hand. it was the best 4 am start to my day that i could possibly ask for.
after rolling out of bed at what seemed like afternoon hours, but really it was 10 am, we headed for city market to buy breakfast food and went back to my empty house. (i failed to mention that i've had company for the past week and they left for a bluegrass festival for the weekend and that my roommate is in nc for the next week.) i made breakfast for my still sleepy-eyed boy, while he caught up on sports news online and relayed the important stuff to me. we ate our breakfast at the table and i left the dishes in the sink to be cleaned up later. we sipped coffee and watched a tnt sunday morning movie then i sent him off to woods scentless and camoflauged.
i thought about getting motivated, but decided against it. i picked up the book i just started reading. it's called redeeming love by francine rivers. i highly recommend it. it's an amazing love story based on the book of hosea in the bible. i'm so addicted to it and boy does that feel good. i'm not going to pretend i've been the best christian or even a remotely decent one over the past few years. i still don't have a church here in steamboat. i've actually only been twice. there's noone to blame but myself. shame on me. anyhoo, great book. you should go get it...NOW!
i interrupted my reading with a little nap on the couch. when i woke up, i contemplated getting motivated again, put some dishes in the dishwasher and decided against further motivation for the second time. there was a storm blowing in and i picked up where i left off in my book as the thunder rolled through the yampa valley. perfect reading weather :)
i finished up a chapter just in time for army wives. while i watched, i had myself an oversized mug of light mint chocolate chip ice cream. after another fantastic episode was complete, i finished up my lazy sunday with a cherry blossom bubble bath and more reading.
now there's nothing particularly special about any of those activities. it wasn't exciting or adventurous. it's doesn't make for a great story. sorry. however, it made for a spectacualr sunday for me. i think the best part of it all is that it's these little things that make me happy now. maybe it goes back to my edge of reason post. maybe it doesn't matter what you're doing. what matters is the relationship you have with those around you and yourself. i feel like i'm on the right track for both. bloody marys and breakfast from creekside are good, especially for your hangover from saturday, but doing nothing with no hangover, that's so much better. that's what i love about sundays! it sure feels good to finally feel the way i do...
Wednesday, August 19, 2009
laughter is the best medicine...
typically, i'm not a fan of e-mail forwards. however, this one is worth sharing. if some part of this doesn't get a belly laugh out of you, then there is no hope for your sense of humor...
i'm having some trouble pasting the text so follow this link:
http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/note.php?note_id=246617715197&ref=mf
i'm having some trouble pasting the text so follow this link:
http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/note.php?note_id=246617715197&ref=mf
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
grrrrrrrrrr...
what i don't love is the spacing and uploading on blogger. consider this my apology for the terrible layout of my previous post. i couldn't be bothered to fool with it anymore, which is shocking. (i'm really meticulous and i will not be able to look at it ever again as it will drive me absolutely crazy!) everytime i uploaded a picture, it threw off the spacing of everything else. maybe there's a secret trick i don't know about. please do tell if you know it. thanks.
oh and i didn't tag anyone because i'm pretty sure all of my blogger friends have already completed the list.
oh and i didn't tag anyone because i'm pretty sure all of my blogger friends have already completed the list.
ooooooh, i LOVE the way you...
a bit delayed, but still complete, here is the list of six things i love that mrs. kace requested oh-so-long-ago:
1. mountains.
they are glorious. i can't imagine not living in the mountains. rolling hills or rocky peaks, big, little, i don't care. it's where my heart belongs.
2. photography. pictures are worth a thousand words. i LOVE that people see beauty in the simplest things and capture it in a way make other people appreciate it as much as they do. i also LOVE that with the right lighting, etc. you can share the beauty of things that are obviously so. the picture above, for example. i really want to lie and say that i took it. i didn't. luke did. i was there though. it was breathtaking.
3. this place.
lakes in general, but particularly lake chatuge.
4. these people.
and my mama and my sister.
5. thunderstorms.
1. mountains.
they are glorious. i can't imagine not living in the mountains. rolling hills or rocky peaks, big, little, i don't care. it's where my heart belongs.
2. photography. pictures are worth a thousand words. i LOVE that people see beauty in the simplest things and capture it in a way make other people appreciate it as much as they do. i also LOVE that with the right lighting, etc. you can share the beauty of things that are obviously so. the picture above, for example. i really want to lie and say that i took it. i didn't. luke did. i was there though. it was breathtaking.
3. this place.
lakes in general, but particularly lake chatuge.
4. these people.
and my mama and my sister.
5. thunderstorms.
Friday, July 31, 2009
the edge of reason...
yes. i'm still alive. yes. i'm still trying my hardest not to depress everyone, including myself. i've actually been working very hard at that last part. i've been filling my days with camping, hiking, biking and running. i'm going with this theory: "excercise gives you endorphins. endorphins make you happy. happy people don't just shoot their husbands (or boyfriends, or bosses, or random stupid people on the street). they just don't!" ~of course it's legally blonde, duh! i'm also counteracting all of that exercise with the pasta i'm having for lunch right now and the red wine i've drank three nights this week. oh well!
now on one hand, i'm very proud of myself. i'm especially happy about the camping and hiking i've been doing. i can now officially put up a tent, start a fire, cook food over the fire, settle in for some campfire tv, which has become my favorite show as of late, and get myself to sleep in the tent alone! (that may sound silly, but how many of you would be willing to sleep in a tent by yourself? in the middle of the woods...with bears...and mountain lions? see!) it's the beautiful views, peacefulness and adventure that i've been missing in my colorado summers. these are the things i've wanted to do for so long, but never did because i felt like i didn't have anyone to do them with. (not that i didn't have friends, i did. we just spent our time in other ways. that and we didn't have our own gear and were scaredy cats!) i'm now trying to take advantage of every opportunity that is presented while it's still here to take. when those opportunities aren't presented, i have been trying to create them for myself. my time here is limited and i really want to get out there and take it all in before i leave this beautiful place. not to mention, it's about time i take some action on the things i say i want to do.
each year, for several years now, i make a mental list of things i want to do. at the top is always getting skinny. unfortuantely, i'm no longer sure if it will ever happen again. along with that goal this year, i wanted to improve my snowboarding, run a half marathon, climb a fourteener, learn to cook aaaaaand...do more camping and hiking, just taking better advantage of the things the rockies have to offer. camping-check. hiking-check. cooking-half check. i have made vast improvements, but my menu is still pretty limited. a fourteener is still a possiblity. (and for anyone who may be wondering, a fourteener is a mtn with a peak altitude above 14,000 ft.) a half marathon is probably ruled out for this year, but running helps, right? and snowboarding gets a quarter check, if that. i made some small improvements, but i would've gotten so much better had i put more time into it. anyway, i have, perhaps unconciously, started to whittle away at my list.
now on to the other hand...
my recent endeavors can be mainly contributed to the fact that i am trying to keep my mind off of things. namely, relationships. realtionships of all kinds, not just the romantic ones. relationships and the usual string of bad luck that tends to follow me. those are the things i've been trying to get away from. camping and hiking are great ways to distract yourself. however, they often allow for a lot of thinking time as well. this thinking has led me to the conclusion that doing these things just isn't enough. these great experiences WILL broaden your horizons, make incredible memories and better your life in general. however, i've realized that in order to maximize these experiences, you need to share them with someone special. i'm not saying it has to be with THE someone special. it could be a best friend too. either way, it's important to have that one person you share everything with. i suppose i have reached the point where that is most important to me and for the first time in my life, i am now without that person. maybe it's not the very first time. i suppose it's just the first time i have gone through this and not had the desire to go out and meet new people. i'm not looking for someone to replace the spot that used to be filled by someone else. i just want what i had back. i miss lorna and meghan and luke. of course i miss my closest friends from home too, but i have long since realized that i will never be their "number one" again. having them in my life is a constant. they have always been there and they will always be there. i do need them, but also need that one person. i need that one person who makes my life better on a daily basis. that one person who i can share all of my experiences with. that one person you can always count on to be there. i guess that's part of growing up and getting older. i guess losing the desire to go out and meet new people is too.
all of these experiences and all of this thinking really has me feeling like bridget jones. only i make my lists on my birthday as opposed to new years. twenty-six is coming up soon so i better get to work...
now on one hand, i'm very proud of myself. i'm especially happy about the camping and hiking i've been doing. i can now officially put up a tent, start a fire, cook food over the fire, settle in for some campfire tv, which has become my favorite show as of late, and get myself to sleep in the tent alone! (that may sound silly, but how many of you would be willing to sleep in a tent by yourself? in the middle of the woods...with bears...and mountain lions? see!) it's the beautiful views, peacefulness and adventure that i've been missing in my colorado summers. these are the things i've wanted to do for so long, but never did because i felt like i didn't have anyone to do them with. (not that i didn't have friends, i did. we just spent our time in other ways. that and we didn't have our own gear and were scaredy cats!) i'm now trying to take advantage of every opportunity that is presented while it's still here to take. when those opportunities aren't presented, i have been trying to create them for myself. my time here is limited and i really want to get out there and take it all in before i leave this beautiful place. not to mention, it's about time i take some action on the things i say i want to do.
each year, for several years now, i make a mental list of things i want to do. at the top is always getting skinny. unfortuantely, i'm no longer sure if it will ever happen again. along with that goal this year, i wanted to improve my snowboarding, run a half marathon, climb a fourteener, learn to cook aaaaaand...do more camping and hiking, just taking better advantage of the things the rockies have to offer. camping-check. hiking-check. cooking-half check. i have made vast improvements, but my menu is still pretty limited. a fourteener is still a possiblity. (and for anyone who may be wondering, a fourteener is a mtn with a peak altitude above 14,000 ft.) a half marathon is probably ruled out for this year, but running helps, right? and snowboarding gets a quarter check, if that. i made some small improvements, but i would've gotten so much better had i put more time into it. anyway, i have, perhaps unconciously, started to whittle away at my list.
now on to the other hand...
my recent endeavors can be mainly contributed to the fact that i am trying to keep my mind off of things. namely, relationships. realtionships of all kinds, not just the romantic ones. relationships and the usual string of bad luck that tends to follow me. those are the things i've been trying to get away from. camping and hiking are great ways to distract yourself. however, they often allow for a lot of thinking time as well. this thinking has led me to the conclusion that doing these things just isn't enough. these great experiences WILL broaden your horizons, make incredible memories and better your life in general. however, i've realized that in order to maximize these experiences, you need to share them with someone special. i'm not saying it has to be with THE someone special. it could be a best friend too. either way, it's important to have that one person you share everything with. i suppose i have reached the point where that is most important to me and for the first time in my life, i am now without that person. maybe it's not the very first time. i suppose it's just the first time i have gone through this and not had the desire to go out and meet new people. i'm not looking for someone to replace the spot that used to be filled by someone else. i just want what i had back. i miss lorna and meghan and luke. of course i miss my closest friends from home too, but i have long since realized that i will never be their "number one" again. having them in my life is a constant. they have always been there and they will always be there. i do need them, but also need that one person. i need that one person who makes my life better on a daily basis. that one person who i can share all of my experiences with. that one person you can always count on to be there. i guess that's part of growing up and getting older. i guess losing the desire to go out and meet new people is too.
all of these experiences and all of this thinking really has me feeling like bridget jones. only i make my lists on my birthday as opposed to new years. twenty-six is coming up soon so i better get to work...
Wednesday, July 1, 2009
on the road again...
thank you, micah! just the mention of "good road trip stories" put a smile on my face. indeed, i do have numerous road trip stories to share. my love for random road trips started shortly after the 6 month "no driving after 9" restriction ended and i received my "full provisional" license. this love quickly evolved and has resulted in a 1900 and some odd mile drive from north carolina to colorado and back and then back again. i will tell you of this evolution.
i believe my first road trip memory after the age of 16 occurred one early summer night just after my junior year of high school. if i recall correctly, miss kace was involved in this "mini road trip", as i will call it. we were in helga. she was my lovely and very loud glimmering gold 1989 honda accord. there were five of us who packed in there and decided to go for a drive. i think it started out as dinner in asheville, but i can't really remember. for whatever reason, we wanted to keep going on I-40. "let's just see where the road takes us" are famous last words! we did and we ended up in marion. the classicly beautiful, booming metropolis of marion, nc. we stopped at some super sketchy gas station. for the life of me, i can't remember what was said, but a very overweight lady with less than groomed hair and a quite fashionable looney tunes shirt with matching spandex shorts threatened a very shy, less than 100 lb 16 year old haley gibson. throughout the ordeal, i simply remember haley running back to the car white as a ghost. we laughed the entire way home! it was then that i realized just how much fun you can have in a car, even if you aren't necessarily going anywhere.
i shortly followed that excursion with my first overnight "sneak out", if you will. i pulled the switch-a-roo with natalie. you know, i'm staying there and she was staying with me. we drove to the lake for the night. sneaky-sneakerson and me didn't even have to place to stay really, but we knew plenty of people there so all was well. i think we may have slept in my car at someone's campsite. it was uncomfortable, but we didn't care! it was a slippery downward slope from there.
the slippery slope led to one of my dumbest adventures yet when i was a freshman or maybe a sophomore in college. after a tragic breakup, heather and i followed the "friend in need is a friend indeed" theory and made an emergency late night trip to charlotte for some consoling for one of our bff's. heather had to be at work at 6 am at the jones cafeteria the following day. this would not have been a problem had the consoling been just that. lying on the couch watching chick flicks and eating a pint of ben and jerrys with whipped cream and a bag of doritos would have left us driving back with little sleep and perhaps a stomachache, but that's about it. however, it went more like this instead: "those pi kapp boys are cute and they always flirt with me, but i've been dating stupid. they're having a party tonight. i think we should go there." continuing with the same theory, off we go to the frat party in tow of the consolee. needless to say, against our better judgement, we had a few drinks and before you know it, it's 3 am and heather is scheduled to be at work in 3 hours. with the consolee happily drunk and tucked safely away in bed, we venture out on the streets of charlotte to find some late night food to appease us for the drive home. first we tried the waffle house. there was a wait and just after the lady at the counter and everyone else in the place turned to look at us, we realized we were a bit out of place. the gentleman who walked in behind us and also felt quite out of place, suggested we try the 24 hour taco bell just around the block. we were thrilled to hear of this 24 hour fast food. (it was still a new concept then!) we gladly followed him to the drive thru and ordered our tacos, nachos and mountain dews, forgetting all about the drive we had ahead of us. with full stomachs, we headed back to the mountains. as the rising sun approached and we reached the steep saluda grade, we encountered the densest fog i have ever driven through to this day. foggy minds filled with leftover booze, greasy food and no sleep do not mix well with foggy roads. i must've been driving about 10 miles an hour. it was torture and it took ages, but by the grace of god, our dumbasses made it home to haywood county, where i dropped heather off at work a mere 30 minutes past the time she was supposed to be there.
these late night trips ensued throughout my college years, but none quite as bad as the previously mentioned.
this leads me to post-college adventures and my most favorite road trip of all. unlike, most of my trips, this one was not so much about the journey and more about the destination. i must start with explaining the time period in which this occurred. i was living in hickory (which i do NOT recommend). my best friend in the area was a very hip and single 57 year old lady who worked a few cubicles over from me at hanes industries. we were having drinks at a bar just across the street from my apartment. we had talked about lots of things. how much we hated our jobs and how we wanted a vacation. it occurred to us that we had a long weekend and that the beloved pavillion in myrtle beach was open for it's last weekend before being moved out to be replaced by high-priced retirement communities. we felt we just had to see it one last time. a guy that i was semi-dating at the time showed up for a beer and we told him of our plan. he would drive since he hadn't been drinking. he could buy some trunks at the beach. we would leave immediately. after grabbing a swim suit and minor other necessities, joy and i fell asleep to the sound of the motor and probably jack johnson while josh drove us. we woke up just as we pulled onto kings highway right at dawn. after some time frolicking on the beach, we checked into a hotel room and josh went to sleep. he slept and watched baseball in the room for the rest of the trip. joy and i layed by the pool and on the beach, went shopping and had cocktails at the tiki bar next door. it was fabulous and she was having the time of her life! i drove home. i dropped joy off and then drove josh back to his jeep. he had bought me a ticket to a concert in charlotte the following week and wanted to know if i could go. it was three doors down, i think. poor guy. he was such a bum on the beach trip that i never called him again. i guess that's one of the coldest things i've ever done, but that random weekend at the beach with joy sure was fun!
of course my trips from nc to co and back are quite memorable. this last trip that i made to nc with miss lindy-licious in april was entertaining. it consisted of a burger king hat, A LOT of coffee and the establishment of a strong bond with her gps. we stopped at a subway just outside of st. louis. we gave ourselves the luxury of eating inside so we could strech our legs and enjoy not being in the car for a bit. as soon as we got back in the car, i turned to her and asked what that smell was. she replied with, "i don't know. i just thought you farted and didn't want to admit to it." "no, no", i said, "plus that smells like body odor". we had just showered a few hours earlier and didn't smell when we went into the subway. we had to roll the windows down and take off the hoodies we were wearing for the next 50 miles or so to air out the smell of b.o. i'm still not sure what was in that subway that could've caused it and i don't know the name of that town, but i hope i can remember enough to avoid stopping there on my next trip through.
and as for colorado, miss kace, that is where i had the highlight of my road trip adventures. anyone in colorado will know what i'm talking about. when you are driving west on I-70 coming out of denver and climbing into the mountains, you reach that peak just past buffalo bills grave and see before you the most amazing feat. you see the colorado rockies and know that god does exist. there is no other explanation. it is breathtaking!
i don't know that anyone could possibly still be reading my road trip babble, but if you are, i wish that i had some moral of the story for you. maybe don't drink and drive. don't lie to your parents. most of all, have fun! and trust me, random road trips are really fun! life is a highway, ladies...keep truckin'!
i believe my first road trip memory after the age of 16 occurred one early summer night just after my junior year of high school. if i recall correctly, miss kace was involved in this "mini road trip", as i will call it. we were in helga. she was my lovely and very loud glimmering gold 1989 honda accord. there were five of us who packed in there and decided to go for a drive. i think it started out as dinner in asheville, but i can't really remember. for whatever reason, we wanted to keep going on I-40. "let's just see where the road takes us" are famous last words! we did and we ended up in marion. the classicly beautiful, booming metropolis of marion, nc. we stopped at some super sketchy gas station. for the life of me, i can't remember what was said, but a very overweight lady with less than groomed hair and a quite fashionable looney tunes shirt with matching spandex shorts threatened a very shy, less than 100 lb 16 year old haley gibson. throughout the ordeal, i simply remember haley running back to the car white as a ghost. we laughed the entire way home! it was then that i realized just how much fun you can have in a car, even if you aren't necessarily going anywhere.
i shortly followed that excursion with my first overnight "sneak out", if you will. i pulled the switch-a-roo with natalie. you know, i'm staying there and she was staying with me. we drove to the lake for the night. sneaky-sneakerson and me didn't even have to place to stay really, but we knew plenty of people there so all was well. i think we may have slept in my car at someone's campsite. it was uncomfortable, but we didn't care! it was a slippery downward slope from there.
the slippery slope led to one of my dumbest adventures yet when i was a freshman or maybe a sophomore in college. after a tragic breakup, heather and i followed the "friend in need is a friend indeed" theory and made an emergency late night trip to charlotte for some consoling for one of our bff's. heather had to be at work at 6 am at the jones cafeteria the following day. this would not have been a problem had the consoling been just that. lying on the couch watching chick flicks and eating a pint of ben and jerrys with whipped cream and a bag of doritos would have left us driving back with little sleep and perhaps a stomachache, but that's about it. however, it went more like this instead: "those pi kapp boys are cute and they always flirt with me, but i've been dating stupid. they're having a party tonight. i think we should go there." continuing with the same theory, off we go to the frat party in tow of the consolee. needless to say, against our better judgement, we had a few drinks and before you know it, it's 3 am and heather is scheduled to be at work in 3 hours. with the consolee happily drunk and tucked safely away in bed, we venture out on the streets of charlotte to find some late night food to appease us for the drive home. first we tried the waffle house. there was a wait and just after the lady at the counter and everyone else in the place turned to look at us, we realized we were a bit out of place. the gentleman who walked in behind us and also felt quite out of place, suggested we try the 24 hour taco bell just around the block. we were thrilled to hear of this 24 hour fast food. (it was still a new concept then!) we gladly followed him to the drive thru and ordered our tacos, nachos and mountain dews, forgetting all about the drive we had ahead of us. with full stomachs, we headed back to the mountains. as the rising sun approached and we reached the steep saluda grade, we encountered the densest fog i have ever driven through to this day. foggy minds filled with leftover booze, greasy food and no sleep do not mix well with foggy roads. i must've been driving about 10 miles an hour. it was torture and it took ages, but by the grace of god, our dumbasses made it home to haywood county, where i dropped heather off at work a mere 30 minutes past the time she was supposed to be there.
these late night trips ensued throughout my college years, but none quite as bad as the previously mentioned.
this leads me to post-college adventures and my most favorite road trip of all. unlike, most of my trips, this one was not so much about the journey and more about the destination. i must start with explaining the time period in which this occurred. i was living in hickory (which i do NOT recommend). my best friend in the area was a very hip and single 57 year old lady who worked a few cubicles over from me at hanes industries. we were having drinks at a bar just across the street from my apartment. we had talked about lots of things. how much we hated our jobs and how we wanted a vacation. it occurred to us that we had a long weekend and that the beloved pavillion in myrtle beach was open for it's last weekend before being moved out to be replaced by high-priced retirement communities. we felt we just had to see it one last time. a guy that i was semi-dating at the time showed up for a beer and we told him of our plan. he would drive since he hadn't been drinking. he could buy some trunks at the beach. we would leave immediately. after grabbing a swim suit and minor other necessities, joy and i fell asleep to the sound of the motor and probably jack johnson while josh drove us. we woke up just as we pulled onto kings highway right at dawn. after some time frolicking on the beach, we checked into a hotel room and josh went to sleep. he slept and watched baseball in the room for the rest of the trip. joy and i layed by the pool and on the beach, went shopping and had cocktails at the tiki bar next door. it was fabulous and she was having the time of her life! i drove home. i dropped joy off and then drove josh back to his jeep. he had bought me a ticket to a concert in charlotte the following week and wanted to know if i could go. it was three doors down, i think. poor guy. he was such a bum on the beach trip that i never called him again. i guess that's one of the coldest things i've ever done, but that random weekend at the beach with joy sure was fun!
of course my trips from nc to co and back are quite memorable. this last trip that i made to nc with miss lindy-licious in april was entertaining. it consisted of a burger king hat, A LOT of coffee and the establishment of a strong bond with her gps. we stopped at a subway just outside of st. louis. we gave ourselves the luxury of eating inside so we could strech our legs and enjoy not being in the car for a bit. as soon as we got back in the car, i turned to her and asked what that smell was. she replied with, "i don't know. i just thought you farted and didn't want to admit to it." "no, no", i said, "plus that smells like body odor". we had just showered a few hours earlier and didn't smell when we went into the subway. we had to roll the windows down and take off the hoodies we were wearing for the next 50 miles or so to air out the smell of b.o. i'm still not sure what was in that subway that could've caused it and i don't know the name of that town, but i hope i can remember enough to avoid stopping there on my next trip through.
and as for colorado, miss kace, that is where i had the highlight of my road trip adventures. anyone in colorado will know what i'm talking about. when you are driving west on I-70 coming out of denver and climbing into the mountains, you reach that peak just past buffalo bills grave and see before you the most amazing feat. you see the colorado rockies and know that god does exist. there is no other explanation. it is breathtaking!
i don't know that anyone could possibly still be reading my road trip babble, but if you are, i wish that i had some moral of the story for you. maybe don't drink and drive. don't lie to your parents. most of all, have fun! and trust me, random road trips are really fun! life is a highway, ladies...keep truckin'!
summertime blues...
now i feel 100% positive that my blog doesn't make a difference in the lives of, well, anyone. however, i have refrained from writing anything recently because i have gotten so down, i just don't have anything positive to say at the moment. i know misery loves company, but i'm trying to spare you all.
in an effort to pick myself up out of the summer slump, i'm going to copy my friends micah and jennie. please give me an uplifting topic to discuss. i can be quite witty at times so go ahead and throw it out there, whatever IT may be.
oh and don't you worry your pretty little heads about me. i get into a summer slump every year here. it's usually because i want to spend summer holidays at the lake. and yes, i do mean THE lake. as far as i'm concerned, there is only one! the over-sized ponds filled with snowmelt in northwest colorado may be beautiful, but looking at them seems to be the only thing they're good for. my boyfriend tried to argue this point the other day. he lost! i also want to put my toes in the sand, hear some waves crashing and eat really GOOD seafood. that's all.
in an effort to pick myself up out of the summer slump, i'm going to copy my friends micah and jennie. please give me an uplifting topic to discuss. i can be quite witty at times so go ahead and throw it out there, whatever IT may be.
oh and don't you worry your pretty little heads about me. i get into a summer slump every year here. it's usually because i want to spend summer holidays at the lake. and yes, i do mean THE lake. as far as i'm concerned, there is only one! the over-sized ponds filled with snowmelt in northwest colorado may be beautiful, but looking at them seems to be the only thing they're good for. my boyfriend tried to argue this point the other day. he lost! i also want to put my toes in the sand, hear some waves crashing and eat really GOOD seafood. that's all.
Thursday, June 18, 2009
another summer day has come and gone away...
well not really...we've yet to have any summer weather, but at least it's not snowing. anyway, the point is...i want to go home! (ironically, as i was typing that sentence, the song came on my online radio station. it's a sign!)
don't get me wrong...moving to colorado was the best decision i ever made. for the most part, i've had a wonderful experience. i've made life-long friends. i found myself here, well the beginning of the path that leads to me anyway. i love my boyfriend. i love my roommate (who is also from nc :)). i want them in my life. however, the part of me that wants to be surrounded by the comfort of friends and family that have always been there for me become stronger and stronger everyday.
i hate missing important moments. it breaks my heart every single time and despite what i may have thought in the beginning, it doesn't get any easier. i am heart-broken that i can't go to alicia and brent's wedding this weekend. it absolutely killed me to miss the birth of my three best friend's three beautiful babies. i can't stand spending christmas without my family. i miss those random weekends full of laughter and love. i want to go to birthday parties. i want the kids to recognize me every time they see me. i want to have lake trips and camping trips with the whole crew. i want to go to girls night more than twice a year. i want to take a nap on my mom's couch on a sunday afternoon. i want to sit on the porch on summer nights and see lightening bugs.
of course i've said these things before, but it really does feel different this time. i love the person i'm growing into and i truly believe that moving away played a very important role in making me that person. i also think it's just as important for me to share that person with the people who spent so much time building the foundation and then handing me the pieces to re-build it after each earthquake. it may take a little longer than i expected or wanted, but i'll make it back there eventually. in the meantime, i'll enjoy what i have while i have it. i do live the rockies for now. i'm lucky, i know...but i want to go home!
don't get me wrong...moving to colorado was the best decision i ever made. for the most part, i've had a wonderful experience. i've made life-long friends. i found myself here, well the beginning of the path that leads to me anyway. i love my boyfriend. i love my roommate (who is also from nc :)). i want them in my life. however, the part of me that wants to be surrounded by the comfort of friends and family that have always been there for me become stronger and stronger everyday.
i hate missing important moments. it breaks my heart every single time and despite what i may have thought in the beginning, it doesn't get any easier. i am heart-broken that i can't go to alicia and brent's wedding this weekend. it absolutely killed me to miss the birth of my three best friend's three beautiful babies. i can't stand spending christmas without my family. i miss those random weekends full of laughter and love. i want to go to birthday parties. i want the kids to recognize me every time they see me. i want to have lake trips and camping trips with the whole crew. i want to go to girls night more than twice a year. i want to take a nap on my mom's couch on a sunday afternoon. i want to sit on the porch on summer nights and see lightening bugs.
of course i've said these things before, but it really does feel different this time. i love the person i'm growing into and i truly believe that moving away played a very important role in making me that person. i also think it's just as important for me to share that person with the people who spent so much time building the foundation and then handing me the pieces to re-build it after each earthquake. it may take a little longer than i expected or wanted, but i'll make it back there eventually. in the meantime, i'll enjoy what i have while i have it. i do live the rockies for now. i'm lucky, i know...but i want to go home!
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
tacky, trashy tuesday
first of all, i want to admit how incredibly unproductive i've been today. thank you micah.
my first item on the agenda happened last week, but has bothered me so much since, i will bring it up now. i was on my way to work. as i start to accelerate from being stopped at the red light on lincoln avenue, i look over just in time to see what has to be the stupidest man alive. he is on a motorcycle. not even a harley, not that it makes a difference, but one of those dirt-bike looking, yet street legal, annoyingly loud things that seem to be all the rage in steamboat. i hate those! i will also preface this with the fact that colorado does not have a helmet law, which is ridiculous. how can you justify a seatbelt law, but not a helmet law?! i favor both. anyway, stupid, as i will call him, is riding along lincoln in the opposite direction with no helmet. fine, you're an adult. go ahead, STUPID! then i glance down just in time to see, what i assume is his daughter, (i certainly hope nobody would leave stupid alone with their child unless he had a legal right to be there) sitting in front of him on the motorcycle with no helmet on as well. this was a main highway. this girl was 3-4 years old. i feel sure you need no further explanation of my fury. i think he should have been pulled over and taken to jail for sheer stupidity...and trashiness!
the second and final item on my agenda are the happy people in commercials, bicycle commercials to be exact. today was day one of riding my bike to work. i did not feel like those smiling people in the "be green" magazine ad i saw last week. no, i did not feel like that at all. i don't care if i was saving the environment one fuel emission at a time or on my way to losing all the weight i've been wanting to. i wasn't smiling and laughing in a pretty sundress with my hair blowing back perfectly in the wind. i think i will sue the producers of those bicycle ads for false advertisement. as a side note, i will say that my bike isn't like a trashy mexican bike or anything. it's actually a really cute schwinn cruiser. that's just what i wanted to complain about today. in my opinion, pretending to be that happy when you so clearly aren't is tacky!
that is all for today. i have put my work aside long enough. happy tacky, trashy tuesday!
my first item on the agenda happened last week, but has bothered me so much since, i will bring it up now. i was on my way to work. as i start to accelerate from being stopped at the red light on lincoln avenue, i look over just in time to see what has to be the stupidest man alive. he is on a motorcycle. not even a harley, not that it makes a difference, but one of those dirt-bike looking, yet street legal, annoyingly loud things that seem to be all the rage in steamboat. i hate those! i will also preface this with the fact that colorado does not have a helmet law, which is ridiculous. how can you justify a seatbelt law, but not a helmet law?! i favor both. anyway, stupid, as i will call him, is riding along lincoln in the opposite direction with no helmet. fine, you're an adult. go ahead, STUPID! then i glance down just in time to see, what i assume is his daughter, (i certainly hope nobody would leave stupid alone with their child unless he had a legal right to be there) sitting in front of him on the motorcycle with no helmet on as well. this was a main highway. this girl was 3-4 years old. i feel sure you need no further explanation of my fury. i think he should have been pulled over and taken to jail for sheer stupidity...and trashiness!
the second and final item on my agenda are the happy people in commercials, bicycle commercials to be exact. today was day one of riding my bike to work. i did not feel like those smiling people in the "be green" magazine ad i saw last week. no, i did not feel like that at all. i don't care if i was saving the environment one fuel emission at a time or on my way to losing all the weight i've been wanting to. i wasn't smiling and laughing in a pretty sundress with my hair blowing back perfectly in the wind. i think i will sue the producers of those bicycle ads for false advertisement. as a side note, i will say that my bike isn't like a trashy mexican bike or anything. it's actually a really cute schwinn cruiser. that's just what i wanted to complain about today. in my opinion, pretending to be that happy when you so clearly aren't is tacky!
that is all for today. i have put my work aside long enough. happy tacky, trashy tuesday!
Monday, June 15, 2009
duck, duck, GOOSE...
so it seems i have been "tagged". my "tagger" was, imagine this, Micah, who is my one and only follower and the person who converted me into a blogger. again, i'm still new to all of this, but i guess i just have to list six unimportant things that make me happy. i'm also supposed to tag other people to do it after me, but i'm going to skip that part. as of now, i don't have any blogger friends aside from Micah and i'm not quite sure how the social networking aspect of this whole blog thing works.
soooooooooo for whomever may be interested, these random tidbits make me happy...
1. porches. i loooooooooove porches. my summers involve spending a good majority of my time on porches. porches are my sanctuary. i sit on the porch to relax, to read, to drink coffee, to drink wine, to talk on the phone. it's my favorite place for me time. the condo i just moved out of had the most fabulous porch! the view was amazing! i was really, really sad to leave it. i had to because a retired couple from florida was coming in for the summer. you would think i could get away from those people all the way out here, but noooooooo! one day, like 75 years from now, when i actually have a house, it will most definitely have a wrap-around porch with rocking chairs and a porch swing. i can't wait!
2. speaking of porch swings...swings, in general, make me happy. there is a park near my house where i sometimes stop to swing when i am walking past. it always makes me think of the ginormous swing set at crabtree elementary school. i thought those were the best swings in the world when i was five. my great-grandmother would take me there. it was fantastic! call me silly, but i think swings are the simplest form of liberation that people of all ages can enjoy. i also classify hammocks in the swing category. while they may not be as exhilirating, i still throughly enjoy lying in a hammock with a good book while the breeze blows you gently back and forth. luke has one at his house. he has no idea that's the only reason i am dating him ;)...
3. shopping. there is nothing like a good retail therapy session. i don't like online shopping quite as much as actual shopping, but i have had to adjust since i live in a town that's 3 hours from the closest mall. it's still fun to rip open the package and see it for the first time when you already own it, but the actual shopping process is my favorite, all of it. i'm pretty picky so most people don't like to shop with me, but i'm okay with that. i like to take my time shopping. i want to look at all of my options, try them on and make an educated decision. this is usually a very lengthy process. when i get home, i like to lay everything out on the bed and try it on again with the proper accesssories, etc. that i had pictured when i made the purchase.
4. grilling out. doing this at the lake is my most favorite, but anywhere will do. i like the camaraderie of it all. how could anyone be unhappy chilling in the sun with your best friends, sipping a delicious beverage, playing badminton and catching a whiff of whatever may be cooking over the fire? not to mention, you finish it all off with a typically fabulous (and relatively inexpensive) meal, easy clean-up and sometimes a camp fire. what's not to love?
5. sunny spots. not the actual sunny spot, but the feeling you get when you leave a shady spot and cross into a sunny one. regardless of the temperature, this always warms you up. inside and out. i like taking the time to stop and turn my face directly towards the sun so i can soak it all up.
6. a well-organized closet. i can't even begin to describe all of the things i could do with carrie's closet at the new place in the sex and the city movie. now i'm the worst unpacker ever, i moved last week and still don't have a third of my things unpacked. the thought of taking it all out of those boxes and bags and seeing it strewn across my room is enough to make me stab myself in the eye with one of those scorching hot fire poker thingys. however, the satisfaction of having everything hung neatly in the closet in plain sight and in descending order from darkest to lightest is overwhelming. i like having a lot of shelves and drawers in the closet too. i can't quite afford to have the closet of my dreams just yet (well, that and i have a tendancy to move every 6 months or so at the moment), but one day i will have the kind of closet you open up to hear angels singing and see bright lights shining down from the heavens. again, i can't wait!
i've used all my descriptive time for the above-mentioned tidbits, but i think these deserve an honorable mention...
the silence of a rocky mountain snowfall, then the sound it makes beneath your feet when you walk through it, boats, the sound of thunder, toddlers clapping, laughing 'til it hurts, chips and dip and the ice cream bites that luke feeds me as he's eating the whole pint =)
soooooooooo for whomever may be interested, these random tidbits make me happy...
1. porches. i loooooooooove porches. my summers involve spending a good majority of my time on porches. porches are my sanctuary. i sit on the porch to relax, to read, to drink coffee, to drink wine, to talk on the phone. it's my favorite place for me time. the condo i just moved out of had the most fabulous porch! the view was amazing! i was really, really sad to leave it. i had to because a retired couple from florida was coming in for the summer. you would think i could get away from those people all the way out here, but noooooooo! one day, like 75 years from now, when i actually have a house, it will most definitely have a wrap-around porch with rocking chairs and a porch swing. i can't wait!
2. speaking of porch swings...swings, in general, make me happy. there is a park near my house where i sometimes stop to swing when i am walking past. it always makes me think of the ginormous swing set at crabtree elementary school. i thought those were the best swings in the world when i was five. my great-grandmother would take me there. it was fantastic! call me silly, but i think swings are the simplest form of liberation that people of all ages can enjoy. i also classify hammocks in the swing category. while they may not be as exhilirating, i still throughly enjoy lying in a hammock with a good book while the breeze blows you gently back and forth. luke has one at his house. he has no idea that's the only reason i am dating him ;)...
3. shopping. there is nothing like a good retail therapy session. i don't like online shopping quite as much as actual shopping, but i have had to adjust since i live in a town that's 3 hours from the closest mall. it's still fun to rip open the package and see it for the first time when you already own it, but the actual shopping process is my favorite, all of it. i'm pretty picky so most people don't like to shop with me, but i'm okay with that. i like to take my time shopping. i want to look at all of my options, try them on and make an educated decision. this is usually a very lengthy process. when i get home, i like to lay everything out on the bed and try it on again with the proper accesssories, etc. that i had pictured when i made the purchase.
4. grilling out. doing this at the lake is my most favorite, but anywhere will do. i like the camaraderie of it all. how could anyone be unhappy chilling in the sun with your best friends, sipping a delicious beverage, playing badminton and catching a whiff of whatever may be cooking over the fire? not to mention, you finish it all off with a typically fabulous (and relatively inexpensive) meal, easy clean-up and sometimes a camp fire. what's not to love?
5. sunny spots. not the actual sunny spot, but the feeling you get when you leave a shady spot and cross into a sunny one. regardless of the temperature, this always warms you up. inside and out. i like taking the time to stop and turn my face directly towards the sun so i can soak it all up.
6. a well-organized closet. i can't even begin to describe all of the things i could do with carrie's closet at the new place in the sex and the city movie. now i'm the worst unpacker ever, i moved last week and still don't have a third of my things unpacked. the thought of taking it all out of those boxes and bags and seeing it strewn across my room is enough to make me stab myself in the eye with one of those scorching hot fire poker thingys. however, the satisfaction of having everything hung neatly in the closet in plain sight and in descending order from darkest to lightest is overwhelming. i like having a lot of shelves and drawers in the closet too. i can't quite afford to have the closet of my dreams just yet (well, that and i have a tendancy to move every 6 months or so at the moment), but one day i will have the kind of closet you open up to hear angels singing and see bright lights shining down from the heavens. again, i can't wait!
i've used all my descriptive time for the above-mentioned tidbits, but i think these deserve an honorable mention...
the silence of a rocky mountain snowfall, then the sound it makes beneath your feet when you walk through it, boats, the sound of thunder, toddlers clapping, laughing 'til it hurts, chips and dip and the ice cream bites that luke feeds me as he's eating the whole pint =)
Friday, June 12, 2009
first time for everything...
this is my first blog. well, i don't really know if what i'm writing now is the blog or the page, as a whole, is the blog. either way, it's a first.
i've had a lot of firsts lately. some good and some bad. overall, i would say i'm a fan of firsts. just last weekend, i saw a moose for the first time. i also went to rocky mountain national park for the first time. obviously, that's where i saw the moose, four of them to be exact. one was a baby moose. he (or maybe she) was unbelieveably cute! he, that's the gender i'm going to go with, was all legs. it looked like he didn't know exactly what to do with them. he was in the river and i imagine that he really wanted to splash around and play, but it looked like he just didn't quite know how yet. as a result of this, i think that my first moose experience was probably better than most, but maybe i'm bias.
what i really like most about firsts is watching someone else experience them, like taking a kid to the zoo for the first time. i've never done that before, but i think it would be fantastic. regardless of age, there's something so innocent and contagiously joyous about watching someone's face light up when they see or do something they never have before. my boyfriend, who is 31 years old, has never seen the ocean. i know, i know! it's an amazing feat to live 31 years without experiencing one of those large bodies of water, a world inside itself. i cut him some slack because he grew up in a landlocked state (wyoming) and moved to another one (colorado), but enough is enough! needless to say, i'm planning a trip to california for the two of us, which will be a first for me too. i've never been to california. i've never seen the pacific ocean. we're planning to go to san francisco. i'm excited to see the city, ride the trolley, cross the golden gate bridge and go whale-watching and wine tasting, but most of all, i'm excited to see his face when he experiences the ocean for the first time. even a manly 31 year old won't be able to hide the look of amazement on his face when he sees the water stretching past the horizon, hears the sound of the waves and smells the sea salt for the first time. the initial shock and awe, watching it take over all of a person's senses, is defintely the best part of a first.
i'm pretty sure my very first blog didn't have any of those effects on you (or me for that matter)! there's probably some sort of blog speak i need to learn to be an inspiring blogger. anyway, it's a first all the same. i suppose i'll catch on one day, or maybe i won't, who knows!
oh and here's the moose. mama and baby.
this is just one of my favorites from the same day.
i've had a lot of firsts lately. some good and some bad. overall, i would say i'm a fan of firsts. just last weekend, i saw a moose for the first time. i also went to rocky mountain national park for the first time. obviously, that's where i saw the moose, four of them to be exact. one was a baby moose. he (or maybe she) was unbelieveably cute! he, that's the gender i'm going to go with, was all legs. it looked like he didn't know exactly what to do with them. he was in the river and i imagine that he really wanted to splash around and play, but it looked like he just didn't quite know how yet. as a result of this, i think that my first moose experience was probably better than most, but maybe i'm bias.
what i really like most about firsts is watching someone else experience them, like taking a kid to the zoo for the first time. i've never done that before, but i think it would be fantastic. regardless of age, there's something so innocent and contagiously joyous about watching someone's face light up when they see or do something they never have before. my boyfriend, who is 31 years old, has never seen the ocean. i know, i know! it's an amazing feat to live 31 years without experiencing one of those large bodies of water, a world inside itself. i cut him some slack because he grew up in a landlocked state (wyoming) and moved to another one (colorado), but enough is enough! needless to say, i'm planning a trip to california for the two of us, which will be a first for me too. i've never been to california. i've never seen the pacific ocean. we're planning to go to san francisco. i'm excited to see the city, ride the trolley, cross the golden gate bridge and go whale-watching and wine tasting, but most of all, i'm excited to see his face when he experiences the ocean for the first time. even a manly 31 year old won't be able to hide the look of amazement on his face when he sees the water stretching past the horizon, hears the sound of the waves and smells the sea salt for the first time. the initial shock and awe, watching it take over all of a person's senses, is defintely the best part of a first.
i'm pretty sure my very first blog didn't have any of those effects on you (or me for that matter)! there's probably some sort of blog speak i need to learn to be an inspiring blogger. anyway, it's a first all the same. i suppose i'll catch on one day, or maybe i won't, who knows!
oh and here's the moose. mama and baby.
this is just one of my favorites from the same day.
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