Also I'm Going To

I'm currently drinking hot water out of a mug and am wrapped in a red flannel heated blanket.  A red flannel heated blanket which just might be my favorite Christmas present of all time; who knew?  Who knew for someone who is always cold like me that a heated blanket is a way of saying - hey I got this for you.  You just sit back.  I got this.  

Also - I'm currently sitting here and reading.  

Reading leads me to wanting to write.  It's weird.  I suppose it's like a finished work of art quilt inspiring my mom to sew a square or two.

Mom, does that happen to you?  

For years, I have flirted around with the idea of writing a book.  Or a memoir.  Or a collection.  Or possibly a something else I haven't even thought of yet.  I just have this feeling that I'm supposed to - however the problem with that is...it won't ever get done if I keep on a thinking and not acting. 

My life right now is this quirky little existence that most likely will never repeat itself again.  I travel around the state for work.  I travel around to more than this state to see someone very important to me.  I travel to see my parents in the sunshine.  Everywhere, North Dakota to Red Lodge to Jackson to Phoenix to Salt Lake City to Nashville to back to Everywhere, North Dakota.  I travel around going on all these crazy little trips and then once I'm back, I travel for work again.  

I am a nomad.  

For the first time ever in the history of ever, I am a nomad.  Routine is not in my repertoire anymore- each day is drastically different.  

So if there ever was a time to most likely get after this itch called book, it's now. 

Being nomad challenges me in ways I've never been before and makes me deliriously happy and deliriously anxious all at the same time.  

This space will be neglected, which honestly it has been for awhile anyway.  When the itch to weave some words comes, I'm going to scratch it but keep the tapestry tucked away to see what might come of it.  Maybe something.  Maybe nothing.  

I might pop in every once in awhile to share really profound messages.  Like a little hey I'm lacking life lessons story about spilling a red smoothie all over myself right as I walked into a training on Tuesday morning.  About how I had to literally wash my clothes in the sink of the school and then walk in with them wet to stand in front of a room full of people and talk.  About how sometimes there's nothing to do but laugh at yourself.   

Please know when I say profound, I don't actually mean profound.  

Do you remember when four years ago, I wrote at the very bottom of a blog post "I'm also going to run a half marathon in May.  I figure if I actually write that down, it's real and I can't back out.  So, there you have it.  A couple of new things."  Then I did.  I ran my first half marathon after not being able to run a tenth of a mile just months before that.  Remember that?  

I'm hoping this will be similar.  

Four years from now, I want to look back at this and go - yes I did that.  I wrote a book, or a memoir, or a collection, or a something else.  

Also remember how I have been writing in this space for FIVE years?  I almost can't even look back in the archives to see where I was at the beginning and where I was in the middle and where I am now.  Through moves.  Through babies I call niece and nephew being born.  Through my mom's cancer.  Through my own complete health transformation.  Through job changes.  Through relationship craps.  Through wins.  Through losses.  Through funnies.  It's crazy.  Five years.  Remember that?  

Now let me wipe a little tear from my eye.  

Cheers to life being the best ever right now.  Cheers to professional goodness.  Cheers to family health.  Cheers to friendships remaining strong and forever.  Cheers to being with someone who makes me a better egg and who makes me throw my arms out happy. 

Cheers to the future book.  

This is a Good Life Letter

Dear Blog Reader,

Yesterday I had lofty goals of getting many items crossed off the list as this early Sunday morning brings another round of travel.  Instead, I nursed a headache from book club Christmas party shenanigans while drinking coffee with Karen and Brittany for hours.  Then, because she realized I was getting in rougher shape (so responsible I am!), Karen proclaimed that lunch was necessary and the next thing I knew I was in her car in a this is what I look like straight out of bed mode.  She was spot on.  Food fixed all woes.  Next, we went to a craft show and then put mascara on in the same bathroom - we showered in different ones - to get ready to head out to the annual cookie exchange.  Book club Christmas party Friday night, where there are no rules about sparkles and selfies and group picture posing.  Coffee drinking Saturday morning with Christmas tree leggings and two forever friends.  Pretending like I'm a college student lunching on Saturday afternoon.  Cookie exchange partying on Saturday night with even more of my favorite people.  This is a good life.  The only thing I can actually say was productive about the weekend was I had a really great mascara rendevous last night and much needed quality time with the people I call my people.  

P.S.

Please tell me you understand what I mean when I say it was a great mascara day.  Sometimes it goes on just right and you feel like you just might be six years younger.  

P.P.S

The picture of Bobsy Twin and me is supposed to not be the same exact one side by side but I'm sitting at the airport and I can't do anything to fix it so seeing double is what you get.  

P.P.P.S

Karen came to my house at 4:15 this morning to take my garbage out and clean the coffee pot and bring my running late hiney to the airport.  She is the very best human. 

Sincerely,

Me 

Seeing Pretty

Before I went to Montana the end of September, there was a conversation that went something like this.  I don't care at all what we do, I just want to be able to see pretty and take pictures of pretty.  I haven't had a chance to do that in a long while and I'm ready to do some noticing of all things - small and large and everything in between. 

No worries on that wish.  I was more than soul filled with beautiful and was able to do the things I love to do.  Like stand in the rain while a waterfall crashes next to me and lay down in the middle of a highway in Yellowstone.  Yep, like that.  Although, really, it was the first time I've ever stood next to a waterfall in the pouring rain.  I just imagine that it was added to the list of things I do before I even knew it.  As for lying in the middle of the road?  This was not my first time on that one.     

Crazy Fast

My little sister is engaged.  And for that, I think this sentiment...most excellent.  I also think this...life is fast.  Crazy fast.  She's the little nugget of the family and here she is, adding a milestone event to her being.  Sister Pister is engaged to be married to a wonderful man who I couldn't change one thing about to make better for her.  Cheers!   

One of the Days

Yesterday, I sat in a brown leather chair, a blue paid wool blanket wrapped around my legs, a hot cup of tea sat on the side table next to me, the mountains looked at me from the window, the first snow of this winter scattered on the ground in all its white fluffy grandiose, and he was working in the next room.  

It's winter.  

The changing of the season and for the first time in a very long time, I don't have the chest squeezing anxiety about the long and dark of it all.  Maybe it's because this fall was the fall of all falls.  Maybe it's because of where I am personally and professionally.  Maybe it's because I had my first taste of snow this year in the mountains and that tainted my reality of the bitter North Dakota cold.  Maybe it's because there's so many exciting adventures coming up.  Maybe it's just because when life is good, it doesn't matter what season it is.  Winter, spring, summer, or fall.  Good is good.  

Fall will always be my favorite and like I said, this one gave me so many chapters in my book which will forever remain written, if not on actual pages, in my heart.  

Driving to a campsite at night and hearing the rushing water when I fell asleep, knowing the spot had been carefully selected.  Waking up the next morning and literally becoming nearly unglued from the view.  Drinking coffee on a rock by that river.  Eating a breakfast while sitting across from the person who cooked.  Hiking up and up and up and up until we came upon a lake that made me become even more unglued.  Eating almonds by that lake.  Talking about the important things.  Laughing at the non-important things.  Squeeze hugging all yellow leaved trees.  Jumping for the unicorns that must live within those rocks.  Realizing even more that being outside, with my face in the fresh air, will always get me and having someone who shares in that sentiment is a bonus.    

It was a Saturday in September.  

Just one of the days in the fall of all falls.   

Standing by the Belief

If you keep a flower chair in the middle of your living room, a little girl named Emma will read a book upside down while listening to her mom and you visit about all kinds of important things like what dresses to wear the next day and which kind of cheese goes the very best with apples.  

If you let a little girl named Emma in on those types of conversations she will pop in with, "Hey!  This book is kinda like you two.  One is blonde and one is dark haired and they are best friends who say and do silly things."  

Right on Emma.  Right on.   

Once again, I stand by my belief that a flower chair in the middle of the living room begs to be sat on and creates a certain welcoming something something.  It's not going anywhere anytime soon. 

Quirking it Up

I tend to prefer things to be rather neat and tidy as evidenced by my shiny floors.  However, I don't ever fold kitchen towels and dishrags.  Ever.  It's silly to me.  A waste of time really.  I just jam those babies in the drawer and pull one out when I need a fresh one.  I figure it doesn't really matter if a dishrag is wrinkly so yep, I don't fold them.  All this to say, I guess nothing is ever cut and dry.  A neat freak kind of gal who doesn't believe in having a drawer full of nicely folded linens in their kitchen.  A neat freak who would never imagine doing that same thing in bathroom - there the towels have to be folded.  Makes sense right?  Nothing makes sense and yet, everything makes sense.

And that might be my favorite part of this world.

Quirks.

Quirks like when it's National Coffee Day I will make us cheers our cups together while driving in the rain and try to capture the moment but totally miss the cups.  Like when it's fall and I will want to take a picture of every yellow tree there is, especially when water reflections and white bark are a part of the equation because at that point, it's pretty much game over to pull the car over.  Every single time.  Quirks like when I hand my camera to a stranger to have them take a picture and then proceed to boss them around - yeah that is a quirk I'm working on.  Nobody likes a bossy stranger, pointing the finger at me.  

And finally, quirks like singing in the car to girl songs (i.e. artists I can not mention here because they are too embarrassing) real loud followed shortly by a Mumford and Sons number to take it to the finale of anything Sister Hazel.