Warmness on the Soul

I stole the title for this post from the Avenged Sevenfold song of the same name. Check it out!
Anyhow, I was freeeeezing cold all day long on Monday. When I lived in Wyoming, November marked the beginning of my being cold for the next 7 months. BOO. But I realized that in Washington, it is December that marks the beginning of my perpetual state of frozen. And even better, I will only be frozen solid 24 hours a day for the next 3 months or so. Who loves seasons?! I DO!

Here are a few pictures from my Thanksgiving in South Carolina with Gram and Uncle John. It is so special to me to be able to spend time with family, and we 3 have gotten together for the past 3 years- a great little tradition! We went to the South Carolina State Museum and Gram and I had a photo shoot outside (photo 1) while Uncle John parked the car. I couldn't remember much of the museum since the last time I was there was probably when I was about 8 years old. They have a special exhibit on pirates right now, and Uncle John tested out part of the exhibit (photo 2).

I love going to Gram's house because I have memories of being there with my whole family- dad included. There are pictures of him all around, and the family that I'm with all knew him much longer than I did. Even if we don't end up sharing stories about him, I like the time just hanging with family who loves him and misses him just as much as I do. Photo number 3 hangs in a collage of pictures in Gram's study. I couldn't help but snap a picture of it on my phone.

I always say I grew up on the NU 50-yard line.

Even though my appendages are frozen, this is warmness on my soul.
A special thanks to UJ for making my Thanksgiving journey possible again this year :)
Love Always.

Nutcracker Bum

My house is happily chaotic right now. We've renewed our lease, but one roommate is moving out, and a new is moving in. Jenny, friend and new roommate, will officially join George and me in the house on Wednesday. To ease the moving process (a process that I loathe), Jenny moved all of her things into the living room last week. To ease the moving process for Courtney (whom I am going to miss living with a LOT because she is kind, likes wine, and is a wizard in the kitchen), her things are allowed to be in our house as long as needed before she's able to move into her new digs. Our house is full to the brim not only with "things" but also with people. It's so nice! When extra roomies and significant others are all in the house, it is so happy. I really like the chaos. 

But, the point of that little background story is that I am without all of my house keys right now, and my commute to work is one block longer than usual. Walking to work this morning, there was a bum across the street whistling the tune of "The Nutcracker". Even though we just celebrated Thanksgiving, Christmas is clearly right around the corner. I laughed out loud in appreciation of the Nutcracker Bum.

I baked my first batch of Christmas cookies last night, we have solar-powered lights up in our backyard (I have been too busy to charge the lights for the front), and now the Nutcracker Bum is whistling Christmas music to me. 'Tis the Season!

Love Always.

P.S. My laptop is kaput, so I'll go back to posting pictures once I figure out how to resurrect it.

Giving Thanks

I am so thankful for so many things. I hope everyone travels safely to and from friends, family, and home this weekend. Gobble Gobble!

Love Always.

Foxy & Freezing

There is a red fox living somewhere near the Capitol grounds! I left work a few Fridays ago to run something to FedEx before I officially started the weekend, and there it was, bounding down 1st Street! I couldn't believe it. Neither could the gentleman I was sharing the sidewalk with because we shared a moment of complete astonishment together. It is not everyday in the middle of an urban setting that you see a fun, frolicking little creature. I wonder how he got here.

Also, Wyoming is a frozen, winter wonderland right now. Just taking weather into account, I'm so glad I'm not going there for the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday. I would happily endure freezing cold temperatures, insane wind, and snowfall if it meant time with my mom, brother, and sister but I certainly don't miss the weather. For instance, check out the WYDOT website and look at the road closures happening around Laramie, the town I spent four frigid years in for college. Here are the conditions: CLOSED roads. Slick, Snowfall, Strong Winds, Blowing Snow, Reduced Visibility. No. Thank. You. By the time Wyoming decides to close a road, the conditions are very serious. Wyoming is tough and good at both driving in winter conditions and keeping roads clear, so when they have to close a road, they aren't messing around. I went for a run in shorts and a tee shirt on a lovely, sunny Saturday this weekend. Love!

The Best News!

Today at work, all of the aspects of my job that I don't really like decided to all rear their ugly heads all day long. Most of the aspects of my job that I adore decided to go into hibernation. The resulting emotion was something like this mcoae;iojaerfncivkqasdfjkl;asdfjl

Also, this week I had to be to work eeeaaaarrlllyyyy. I like to be awake at night, so whenever I have to wake up very early multiple days in a row, I end up loopy and sleep deprived. It shows in my general appearance. On top of already being sleepy, last night I went to the midnight showing of Harry Potter 7 part 1! YAY! It was definitely worth it to stay up, but now I am more tired than maybe ever before.

Combine my state of frustration and grump from work with my state of ridiculousness from lack of sleep, and I was having a pretty rough go of it.

I walked home for lunch, and upon entering my door, I had a piece of mail waiting for me. I can't go into any more detail, but the mail brought me some of the best news I have heard in a very, very long time. It brought me to tears of happiness. Sometimes life brings news of blessings when you most need to hear one. I'll elaborate on this news when the time is right because it is not my news to share, but you know who you are, and I am SO elated for you!

Love Always.

Round the World

There are so many places I feel the extreme need to visit, learn from, and experience. There are so many initiatives I would like to start and programs in which I would like to be involved. I think education is the most important thing we can provide for children to create a positive future- and I'm not just talking formal education. The most important things in life are often not learned in a classroom.

I've learned the most from involvement in sports and being on teams, from time spent with my mom just watching her be amazing and being guided by her, from growing up with my siblings, from moving and traveling, from my dad getting "bonus" time from his heart transplant and then from losing him, from finding love, from getting my heart broken...

It is important to me to work to provide good environments for kids. I want to get them involved and help nurture knowledge and confidence in themselves. All of my goals seem far away right now because they are just getting underway. I don't know quite where or how to start or how to finance my ideas, but I do know that I'm headed in the right direction.

That being said, have you heard about this 'Round the World ticket you can purchase through airlines that are part of the Star Alliance (other airlines have grouped together to offer similar products, and, you're welcome for the advertisement for freeee!)? I like to plot and plan the different places that I will go and see what different itineraries I can create based on the various places I'd like to go to work. Try it, it's fun. What's your dream itinerary? What are you going to do while in each location?

Love Always.

Elis(z)abeth

Well, in case you are living in a hole somewhere and haven't heard, the only thing the media can talk about today is the official engagement of Prince William to Kate Middleton. It's all very exciting, she gets to wear the engagement ring that Princess Diana wore (that gives me goosebumps for William, very meaningful), etc etc etc. 

BUT the most important part of this news is being overlooked. Her middle name is Elizabeth. Also, my first crush (when I was 5) married a girl this year whose middle name is Elisabeth. These men have good taste. Elis(z)abeth's are keepers!

Love Always xx

Family

These are the people I love and miss most in the world. Can't wait for Christmas <3

Fire Day y Español

I missed Fire Day today, and I will admit it was a choice I made conscientiously. The choice I made was between enjoying my slumber or removing my warm self from underneath the blankets and bumbling out into the cold, dark morning in desperate need of caffeine. My happy, sleepy brain won that debate pretty easily, but now I'll never be trained in how to extinguish fire in a burning building or find out how good I look donning a firefighter suit. Chances are that because I didn't participate in Fire Day, tonight on my walk home from work I'll probably pass an elderly lady whose dear, sweet kitty cat is stuck in a tree and I won't be qualified to assist her. Great. 

It is pretty unlike me to pass up any opportunity that sounds remotely unique and fun. I mean, I gave up a chance that 4 year old boys all over the country dream about every day. Shame on me. I don't even deserve a slice of bologna (when my cousin was little and wanted to be a fireman, he referred to bologna as "fireman food"). 

On a different note, I've seen a lot of movies recently both in theaters and thanks to my Netflix. Among the listed of viewed flicks is "Fair Game", "Babel", and this year's Warren Miller film "Wintervention". Tonight I am going to see a foreign film from Spain entitled "Yo, también" (Me Too). 

Encanta siempre y tener un buen fin de semana.

TGIW

Thank Goodness It's Wednesday (tomorrow is Veteran's Day, so today is basically my Friday!)

By the way, here is how work made me feel today:


Love Always.

Be Healthy!

My great-grandmother "Nonny" lived to be just short of her 112th birthday. My mom once told me that Nonny said it was the stairs in her 2-story house that kept her in such great health.

Words of wisdom: take the stairs!

Love Always.

The Vibe

And now, a silly, completely pointless post for you:

There is a phenomenon that occurs that I like to refer to as "The Vibe". There is no way to control it. It just happens. And just as quickly as it showed up, it's gone. My friend Rachel and I coined this term in high school to describe when we were inexplicably attractive to members of the opposite sex. More so than usual. Ha. Realizing that you have the vibe goes something like this (a la my high school days):

You get to dear old high school in the morning ten minutes late for AP European History class because not only did you leave late to get there, but all of the parking lots were already full and you had to park in a no parking zone along the street, read: paying parking tickets. As you walk towards school from your car, the dreamboat that you can barely speak to because he's so dreamy and obviously you're meant to be because you're both running 10 minutes late walks up beside you all smiles and glowing in hottness. Instead of the usual "hi" and "goodbye", he decides that today is a great day to walk and talk and pick flowers for you on the way to class. How completely lovely.

Then in history class as you listen to the other nerds answer the teacher's questions and engage in conversation (obviously a pissing contest and you're way above that because you already know you could run the world way better than any of them) as you eat your apple that you brought for breakfast - thereby making slightly disruptive crunching noises - you think about your run in with Dreamboat McHottieson earlier. By the time class is over, you're completely oblivious to everything except how you have to tell Rachel about said morning event. But there is a gentlemen who is not oblivious to you, and you walk down the hallway realizing that boy numero dos is paying undue attention to you. "OK," you think, "What the crap is going on?"

Ok, I just got sick of telling stories about high school (what was that, 6 years ago?), so let me sum this up. No matter what you do, you seem to just have the Vibe. For reasons beyond your control, you get smiles, flirting, offers for dates that you do not solicit or seek out in any way. As soon as you realize that this is the case and you have the Vibe, you start to feel pretty good. But then, as quickly as it came, it's gone. Lickety split. Boo, what happened?!

I realized on Friday evening as I left work that I had the Vibe. I have to admit that the older I get, the less often I get the Vibe. It's fun though, and it stuck with me all weekend. It's gone today, but it'll be back.

It's not only an attraction thing. You can get the Vibe when you seem to be spot on at work no matter what comes your way. It's just the feeling of totally ruling at whatever comes your way in life. That's the Vibe.

Love Always.

Breakdown

Enjoy your Tuesday :)

Love Always.

Breakfast

For Halloween, I dressed up as...

 

Holly Golightly from "Breakfast at Tiffany's"! (Audrey Hepburn)

In my group was a cowboy, a kitty cat, Where's Waldo, Mayhem (from the Allstate commercials), a fairy... and honorable mention to a Chilean miner and the wild, wacky inflatable tube man! There was another Audrey Hepburn at the party I went to, but we both looked fantastic. Lots of fun!

On Halloween itself, I went for a little hike in Great Falls Park with Kenny and Zack. We didn't get back until dusk, and by the time I ran to my little corner market for candy, I had missed a majority of the trick-or-treaters. Buzz Lightyear seemed to be a popular costume with the kids.

Emma and I are going to finally have a breakfast date at local greasy spoon Jimmy T's, which we've been wanting to try out. Maybe tomorrow morning :)

Big election day tomorrow. Go vote!

Love Always.