It feels like last week was forever ago. I couldn’t even tell you why. So many things seem to be happening right now. Lots of exciting possibilities coming up but they all require some work on my part. I’m hoping I can keep up!
1. We do love each other. We celebrated Valentine’s Day with dinner and drinks at what the hubby says might be his new-found favorite restaurant. The steak was great, we had bit of wine and tried to remember what the heck we did for Valentine’s Day last year. Also, we demolished this nutella bread from our favorite bakery.
2. The OLYMPICS have taken over. So much emotion and passion and determination and athleticism. Oh yeah and commercials. They’ve been great to watch, but I think we’re both ready to have our nights and weekends back to normal and commercial-free.
3. Late nights bring about all the thoughts. So many ideas and revelations occur late at night for me. Saturday night I took full advantage and wrote some of it out and was so glad I did. I can’t help but wonder, is it that nights we are more naturally inclined for those bright idea moments? Or is it just the first time of the day we have more than two minutes of silence? Is it the first time we really allow ourselves to clear our heads and let our minds wander?
I remember the last OLYMPICS when I realized that half of the medalists seemed younger than me. My average, everyday life seemed pretty basic and hardly notable. Today, I can’t say it’s incredibly different.
I’ll never be famous. I won’t be the person you see promoting yogurt or whatever product it is these days along with the other athletes. I won’t be the one jumping off stage into a crowd of fans. If I ever write a book, it won’t be a national bestseller. No one will ever ask for my autograph.
But that’s not what it’s all about. We’re not all supposed to be famous. So we have to ask instead, what? What is the purpose for my life? Because we all have one. You do. I do. It’s true.
Today’s the day. The day that everything is pink or red and covered in love. Maybe you embrace it or maybe you ignore it, but it’s upon us either way.
I once made the mistake of saying Valentine’s Day wasn’t a big deal to me. I meant it, but I didn’t bother to clarify and then was later disappointed. What I mean is that Valentine’s Day does not define a relationship. What happens on Valentine’s Day doesn’t dictate nor indicate how loved you are. That’s not to say you shouldn’t celebrate it. Wear hearts and sing love songs all day long! But know that regardless of where you’re at in life and who you are—you are loved.
That love isn’t just between a couple of lovebirds. Realize the love you have all around you. From dear friends. Family. Teachers. Co-workers. Neighbors. Valentine’s Day may be recognized as the day of love, but it’s the love that happens all year-round that is worth commemorating.
Whoops. Planned on writing this all day and here I am, down to the wire. Here we go with the Thursday Three!
1. I’m sorry I doubted. After a few “snowstorms” that left a little to be desired over the past month, I didn’t take this one seriously. It was real this time. The state that cried snow caught me off-guard, and we got 6 inches. The hubby got stuck in crazy amounts of traffic for 2.5 hours (for what’s usually a 20 minute drive) and we built a snow creature at midnight like old times. I also had the pleasure of helping our little next door neighbor girl build her very first snowman.
2. The OLYMPICS. Need I say more? I’m smitten/enthralled/addicted. Go USA! It’s the time of year that I become quite patriotic. I also don’t understand how anyone could ever say “the OLYMPICS aren’t my thing”…what?!
3. Comfy clothes for the win! Between a weekend of heavy OLYMPIC viewing with some family to a snow day, we are quite cozy over here. I can’t deny that it’s been pretty nice. But when we did don real clothes, we had quite a bit of fun with our little niece and nephew at the kids museum.
It’s here, it’s here, it’s finally here!! The OLYMPICS! (Bet you thought I was going to say Thursday). Yes, the opening ceremonies are tomorrow, but some of the events are already playing on TV tonight! I’m so excited! Tomorrow I might even wear red, white and blue. This week has been a lot of highs and lows and not much in between, but I’m excited to end it on a high note.
1. Date night is a vital part of any relationship. I wish we were better about setting a night aside for date night because whenever we do, it really helps to have conversations that never seem to get brought up in the day-to-day at home. We hit up the art museum for the Porsche exhibit and ended the night with an entire pie from the pie place down the road (if you’re going to spend that much for two slices, you might as well go for the whole thing).
2. How does one talk about stress, struggles and insecurities gracefully on a blog? I’m not sure that I’ve figured that out yet. I sometimes consider never mentioning the dark days that I just feel kinda worthless and wonder what I’m good at. There’s days that someone gets mad at you and you don’t know how to handle it but to go home and cry it out. Days when you feel alone even when you know that’s far from the truth. This week has had included days like that. I hesitate to talk about it for several reasons—I don’t necessarily want to keep talking about, I don’t need a pity party and don’t really want to whine about it. That said, I decided to share anyway because often our social media culture is conducive to posting only the glory moments. We post the pretty pictures of parties and traveling as if our life is nothing but celebrations and fun. The problem is, it’s just not reality. We all have good moments and bad. Sometimes it’s nice to know you’re not the only one whose life isn’t always picture perfect.
3. We celebrated Groundhog Eve for the first time ever. Then on Groundhog day we met a real live Groundhog and witnessed the official winter prediction. Honestly, this should be an entire blog post in itself but clearly I’ve been a little behind with my blogging. Let me just tell you that it was awesome. We threw a party and dozens of people brought brown food to join in the festivities. We love hosting this party for so many reasons, but the main one being that it’s really fun for us to introduce our friends to our other friends.
What is it about Thursdays? You look back at the week and think it was ages since the weekend. What did you even do last weekend? Gosh. Yet it’s marks the beginning of an end (or vice versa I suppose) to the week that has something great about it. Besides, who knew I could start so many blog posts just talking about Thursday? I sure didn’t.
1. We said YES. This past week, friends of ours asked us to be in their wedding this September. Friends we met here, in North Carolina. Something about that is crazy to me. We were both really honored to be chosen for these roles and especially after only knowing them for the past year or so. When we moved we really hoped and prayed we could both make close friends and be close friends. While being in someone’s wedding is far from the deciding factor on your friendship status (please, don’t even get me started about how weddings weirdly make you rank your friends), we are really excited to be a part of their big day and their lives.
2. Shut the front door, there’s snow outside. I know I went on a mini-rant/lecture on what is and is not cold last week. This time, it actually is. I wouldn’t say all of the snow days the kids got away with were totally justified but hope they had a good mini-vacay anyway. I decided to embrace a new-to-me Southern recipe by putting a bowl out on the porch to catch some flakes for snow cream. It tastes about as exciting as it sounds: milky sugar snow. As long as there’s sugar involved, it’s a bona fide Southern dish. And alright already. There’s something really pretty and even kinda fun about snow. I said it.
3. There’s a lot of people in the world. Yep, I’m going big with this last one. But it’s true. People are everywhere and I keep being reminded we have to work at things together. People can challenge you and frustrate you but they also strengthen you. It’s worthwhile to come together, even if it’s sorta inconvenient or outside your comfort zone. They’ll rub you the wrong way and sometimes you want to say, “I can do it all without them!” But there will always be someone else that will annoy you in almost the same way. Might as well figure out how to bring out each other’s strengths and work as a team.
It’s been a long week. Nothing particularly bad or big, just lots of little things happening and stress from all those things. Work has been a little hectic lately for everybody here and sometimes it’s hard to know what will be more relaxing: tackling all the things looming over your head or blowing it all off completely. So let me bring you a super short Thursday Three that consists of the most bizarre and unrelated items possible.
1. Something about being tired brings a strange mix of emotions to the surface. You fight easier or spill over too soon. It can also bring out your comfort creativity. When you’re energized that creativity can ooze out in all sorts of wonderful ways but when you’re weary there’s something raw there. It can either sting or soothe to expose that fatigue. Somehow we keep forgetting that our comfort creativity takes very different forms. He plays music and I eat chocolate write. Even though we’ve been married for a few years now we’re constantly seeking and remembering what are strengths and joys are. The trick is figuring out both how to make them work together and when it’s okay for them to simply stand alone.
2. I don’t want a dog right now. I was going through some sort of major puppy fever not so long ago but now that desire is buried deep once more. It’s nice to know that at least. I’d rather plan a trip and save up money. Whew. Glad that discussion’s finally over.
3. Senior photos are the best. We have a nice camera, and I decided it was time to have a decent “casual” headshot. You know, for my work email or the blog or that frame on my husband’s desk I’ll be buying this weekend. So the hubby was given the title of art director, and we spent a few minutes awkwardly walking around the neighborhood. Got a few decent ones…
Then we got this gem.
I channeled all of my inner high school senior meets glamour shots.
Let’s just go ahead and talk about the weather for a chilly minute. It seems I cannot comment about it without offending someone, but I’ll go ahead and try anyway. To start off, weather is a fact after it’s happened, but how we think or feel about it is based on our experiences. To understand my experiences, I’ll tell you that as a kid I lived in Virgina Beach, VA. I remember the time when it snowed enough to stick around for a few days or when we wore winter coats for 40 degrees and couldn’t imagine being colder. But then I moved to the Midwest the week of a blizzard and used my boogie board as a sled because I wasn’t equipped for that kind of winter.
For over a decade I lived in the heart of Iowa. One year snow covered the ground 43% of the time, and I lived in what was considered one of the 25 coldest cities in America. Snow means waking up an hour earlier to shovel the driveway, scrape your car and hope it will start only to come home and do it all over again. A blizzard means it starts snowing and feels like it will never stop. Snow is no longer pretty and white, but piled high and dark grey from cars and snowplow trucks driving by all day. Salt and sand cover the roads and slowly ruin your cars, shoes and floors. When it gets really bad you might get a snow day, but don’t plan on it. You have to learn to drive through a few inches of unplowed snow and know when you slide how to avoid hitting cars, people or light poles. It becomes a part of life. Snowball fights, going sledding, making snowmen and winter fashion are fun perks but often come with months of cold and weather-related responsibilities.
A year and a half ago we headed south, with warmer weather being one of our objectives. We moved in the middle of August and thought we’d never stop sweating as we lugged our things inside from the humidity. After that passed we had a long fall, followed by a winter that barely graced freezing temperatures for more than a few days. When friends from the Midwest posted about blizzards and snow all the way through May we exchanged high fives for avoiding it and went outside. In the spring we witnessed what I think should be called a yearly pollen storm as you can visibly see clouds of pollen in the sky and covering your car. Summer had a lot a rain and then got hot before we found ourselves in fall again. We purchased what we call our “North Carolina winter coats” (read: softshell jackets) and started claiming it was chilly if it dipped below 60.
When we visited Iowa a few weeks ago, it was bitter cold with one of the days never even reaching 0 degrees outside. Upon returning back to North Carolina ten days later it felt like spring and we loved it. Within our day of travel we experienced a solid 50 degree difference. Literally. It was crazy. Last night in Raleigh, snow was predicted so the grocery store was a madhouse, schools closed early and either cancelled or delayed for the next day and a storm of social media posts took place. What ended up happening? I couldn’t help but giggle. It rained for a little bit and then snowed for maybe an hour or two before dropping into the 20s for the night. In some places the snow stuck but in my yard the grass was far from covered. This is not common weather for January and might even be crossing into record temperatures for the month.
Can we all agree that there’s a difference here? Because I can’t help but see these winter experiences as total opposites. Neither is better than the other, it’s incredible either way. As humans we can’t help but talk about the weather and that’s okay. I just think it’s not worth getting upset or defensive about whatever your weather may be. So to those in the colder states, when I say how warm it is here, I am not trying to gloat. I’m happy to live in a place that has milder temperatures and allows me to avoid a winter hibernation or seasonal affective disorder. That’s what the weather here has resulted in for me. To those in the warmer states, I’m sorry that when you say it’s cold it doesn’t seem like I take you seriously. I know it feels cold to you and the weatherman is calling it a winter storm. While I’ve seen it so much stronger and colder, I’m not trying to one-up you. I’ve lived in cold weather and it wasn’t for me, that’s why I’m here! Let’s agree that weather is crazy and our experiences are all different. Deal?
Hello Thursday, my day of the week. The day that I’m tired and ready for the weekend but sometimes stay up too late anyway just because. Getting home when it’s dark outside makes me feel like I never even had a chance at the day, so I try to stay up late out of defiance but usually don’t accomplish much in those hours anyway. So it goes.
1. Sore muscles are the best worst feeling. After months without formal exercise I decided to try the gym that’s much closer to where we live last night. It was good to get back there and fake some confidence while I lifted baby weights next to hulking men as they grunted. Glorious. Okay, not that part. But I tried to do the machines for the first time since the big injury this summer and didn’t end up on crutches. Success.
2. Learning is fun. I’m taking not one but two graduate level classes this semester at a nearby university. So far so good, but the homework hasn’t really piled up yet. I’m really glad for the opportunity though to learn some new things and hopefully open up some interesting opportunities down the line. The classes are in the nonprofit management program, which in no way relates to what I’m doing in my day job. Sometimes I think doing things like this is really great and interesting and other times I wonder what the purpose is or what I’m doing with my life. But in a good way.
3. February might be my favorite month of 2014. I know that sounds a little presumptuous and not totally fair to the rest of the months. But seriously, so many of my favorite things are happening this February that I can hardly wait! First of all, my favorite holiday (Groundhog Day) is on February 2nd, as always. We might even try to throw another party this year for it. Too soon to say officially, but it’s a good possibility. Second, the Olympics are coming! It will be like a party every day for 17 straight days! I LOVE the Olympics! So, even though that has no direct relation to this week, I’m pretty pumped about February.
I’ve found last year’s list of goals/resolutions and started this year’s. If I haven’t hyped up my big resolutions enough yet then let me assure you it’s way cooler than “update all photo albums” or “read more books”…ahem, right. I also happened upon Ecclesiastes and think it might need to be a yearly tradition to read when setting resolutions each year.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for doing something more than watching TV each night or simply enduring each day to get to the next. But I can get ahead of myself. I plan and imagine an entire life that’s suddenly fulfilled and meaningful and more beautiful than any tumblr feed or pinterest board out there. I’ve made it. Except not really. Nothing I do will be ever be enough to hit that mark: “All streams flow into the sea,yet the sea is never full.” Don’t go crying about it, but you won’t ever make it either. There’s something disappointing in that, but even more so, there’s something incredibly freeing and wonderful about it. It’s all meaningless. Such a refreshing reminder.
5 The sun rises and the sun sets, and hurries back to where it rises. 6 The wind blows to the south and turns to the north; round and round it goes, ever returning on its course. 7 All streams flow into the sea, yet the sea is never full. To the place the streams come from, there they return again. 8 All things are wearisome, more than one can say. The eye never has enough of seeing, nor the ear its fill of hearing. 9 What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun. 10 Is there anything of which one can say, “Look! This is something new”? It was here already, long ago; it was here before our time.
