Acting Not My Age

Last Saturday I was home, in my house.  That seems obvious and redundant all at the same time but I have really taken on the belief that home is kinda wherever you and your people are.  Maybe I've actually adopted a traveler's heart.  Or I'm just mildly crazy.  Or both.  It's hard to tell really.  

I woke up in my house on a Saturday morning for the first time in ages.  I stood in my kitchen with a coffee cup in hand and weighed my options.  A cycling class?  Running outside?  

A text went to Karen that read something like this...let's drink slow coffee and do nothing.   

Then I found myself sitting on her couch with a coffee in hand and nothing in the air other than visits and sunlight streaming in.

  

Then, with more caffeine than would sufficiently fuel a giraffe, we proceeded to have an Amy and Karen Saturday reminscient of summer style.  There was boot shopping and kitchen dance party-ing to Taylor Swift's shake it song and homemade pizza on the grill and two batches of pumpkin dark chocolate chip cookies and sunshine on our faces. 

 

Her girls made us water complete with fruit garnishes.  Made us water.  That sounds funny but that's really what I would call it, they were so cute and proud.   

 

Then, we went to go for a walk and after a quarter of a mile I said, "Let's drive out to see Summer."  Karen said, "Okay."  So off we went to see Sil and the kids which led to me getting this idea stuck in my head that I had to learn how to do the sideways jump click your heels off to the side thing that looks like oh so much fun.  Karen could do it right away and I had to work on it.  But work I did and soon was clicking right along.  

And then?  Then I pulled a classic acting not like my age stunt and started wrestling the kids.  After a sneaky leaf tickle move in which I felt rather helpless, I took a kick to the face and stood up with, "I think my lip is bleeding."  That's what I get for acting my not age and I wouldn't have it any other way.  

Once back in town, we walked.  Got our lungs moving while the sun went down, which was how I orignally planned on starting the day.  I'm sure glad all that happened in the in-between happened first though.  The in-betweens tend to be where it's at.   

Good Old Fashioned Storytime!

I returned home Thursday night after a three day travel training bender that went something like this - this town and then this town and then this town.  Get out of the car and talk for hours and get back in the car.  Give a high five and a smile.  

My sister-in-law sent me a text right when I was finishing up the last workshop on home day that went something like this, "Could you pick up juice boxes for George's Halloween party at Sam's?"  

Then the next thing I knew I was flying through the aisles at Sams with the sudden inspiration to get the supplies to enjoy a cheese plate on the drive home.  It was home day!  The sun was shining!  It was afternoon instead of night!  There were lots of old people sharing the aisles with me!  I mean, all kinds of reasons to celebrate.  

So cheese plate on the way home I did, with a scrounged up festive football plate from the backseat of the car along with my lime green paring knife - yes I have these items on hand.  That work car and me?  We be best friends these days.  Even better of best friends now that we have shared a cheese plate together with the sun shine shining.  

Anyways, I have a point to being home on Thursday night and having something happen and now I will get to it.  My cousin Buckshot (Austin) who now lives at the farm in a shop loft thing called me right as I was putting on striped leggings to the soundtrack of the Counting Crows station playing on Pandora through the air of my house. 

"What are you doing right now Amy?"  

"Just got home...(enter cautious answers)...why?  What's up?"  

I say enter cautious answers because you just never know what you are getting yourself into when a call comes from someone like Austin or when a call comes from the farm.  There was a time in my life when a call meant I would more than likely rip clothes on barbwire or have shoes covered in cow poop or be riding in the tandem truck with no brakes with a stranger driving in the near future.  I still hang on to some of the cautiousness.  I'm sure you understand.

"I need you to drive my pickup across town."  That's what I heard from Austin.  

"Okay I can do that."  

And then.  Then I found myself driving my cousin's rather large diesel pickup with all kinds of young man kind of bells and whistles, "Is this window tint legal anyways?  I feel like I'm tiny in here."  He sat in the passenger seat as he stammered along filling me in on why I was driving.   

"Well, here's the thing.  We are going to repossess a car in this trailer court because I didn't think the guy would just hand me the keys so I didn't plan properly.  I figured I would have to come back tomorrow with a trailer and winch it on.  Stammer.  Stammer.  Sideways look at me to see if I was turning around yet.  But he was nice and he gave me the keys so you're going to drop me off there and then I'll park the car at your house and my dad's guy from work will pick it up tomorrow and drive it back to where it belongs."  

Silence.  A what the hell sideways look from me.  

"Ummmm.  Say what now?  I'm taking you to repossess a car?!  Like what if he ends up shooting us?  You're parking it at my house?!  He is going to follow us and then when you leave he will get me.  That's what is going to happen right now!  Okay wait.  You repossess cars?  I'm confused."  

This really happened.  I really drove Austin down to the trailer park in his young man bells and whistles style diesel pickup and gave him the drop off wave as the man whose car was being repossessed stood on his deck and waved.  Waved and gave a friendly little smile.  

The following items also really happened.  I looked behind me several times on the way home to make sure I wasn't being followed.  I can be dramatic remember?  I also made Austin park the car way down on the street so no one could really tell which house it was tied to.  And I also checked out the window several times that entire night thinking please don't let this turn into an episode of Cops.  I don't want to be on Cops.  Ever.  

All ended well.  

So now I can say I have been in on repossessing a car.  And as a disclaimer, I know some could take it as a slam when I say that it happened in a trailer park but it really did and in our town currently those tend to be rather rough because of the great flood of 2011.  It just needed to be documented correctly.  No harm or judgement intended.  

Also I want to say bathrooms that shine like this when you walk into them keep someone like me entertained on a Friday night.  Even causing me to grab an arm to pull back through the door to say, "Look at this?!  It's so sparkly."  Only to have him answer, "The men's looks the same."  

Only to have me answer, "And you didn't stand there and enjoy it for a few minutes?"   

Plus, I've repossessed a car.  That just sounds bad-ass.  Technically I didn't actually repossess it, but I sure did drive the getaway car and that totally counts. 

Friday Afternoon in October

"Kiss the sky!"  And then her little yet mighty voice gave a best ever muah as her hair whipped in the air and our laughter filled in the moment.  

There are things I hope to pass along and kissing the sky is definitely one of them.  On the list, it's right in between there are no rules about wearing too much jewelry and there's no such thing as hugging too often.    

Yes I Am that Girl

I've had more rainbows show up in my life in the past month or so than ever before and I think it's no coincidence.  You know me, I believe in those sorts of things. 

 

Life has been full of these kind of moments...the ones that make me tear up from good or make me laugh out loud or make me give myself an oh hell yes. 

 

I'm not sure I really understood the gravity of the choices I was making starting last February.  I just knew they had to be made.  There was something strong, real strong, pushing me to throw my entire life into the air to have it come back down.  To come back down differently in all areas.  I knew it needed changing. 

 

I also knew those choices made were going to create months of feeling uncertainty and feeling change and feeling like oh crap I want to be on the other side. 

 

 

And I kept telling myself, I just want it to be next fall.  It will all make sense next fall. 

 

Now here I am and it's fall. 

 

It makes more sense than ever. 

 

 

I love my new job and am finding my groove in it - even quoting unicorns while presenting about data.  If that's not a groove I don't know what is.  An administrator walked up to me the other day at the state principal conference and said, "Are you the unicorn and glitter girl who can help me with my teachers and data?  I've been hearing you can shake things up a bit." 

 

Why yes.  Yes, I am the unicorn and glitter girl.

 

 

I also have had the best time getting to know this guy.  The guy who gave me a glimpse years ago of something that could have been and who now is my reality.  The guy who makes me literally spit water across the table in Jackson, Wyoming with his humor.  The guy who drove me there from Red Lodge because he knew - he knew I would come unglued over the view. 

 

When the clouds and rain lifted and a rainbow showed up right as we were pulling into town, you better believe I jumped out of the pickup and ran.  Ran with droplets of rain falling on my face.   

 

 

Ran to where I could capture it without a fence between it and me.  Ran to where it started.  Ran to that rainbow as fast as I could, knowing it was there as yet another sign of the choices made being right. 

 

 

When I turned back around and started walking, he was sitting there looking at me with a quiet smile across his face.  When I climbed back in, I didn't even have to say anything. 

 

It was an oh hell yes.

 

 

Then he made me spit water across the table in a restaurant in town and I tried oysters for the first time - straight up with no lemon and liked them.