For the first two nights in Sydney, KFarm and I are staying at a large hostel near downtown called Wake Up! Sydney.
It's a great place, sweet location (walking distance to just about anything downtown), neat activities and free advice on a variety of subjects.
The entertaining part is that fact that the target audience seems to be baby collegiates. It makes me miss my old dorm room, people stomping up and down the hall, doors slamming, showers with kick ass water pressure. I half expect my floor of brothers to come knocking on my door at any second :)
Saturday, February 16, 2013
Friday, February 15, 2013
Let me show you a few things
A wise woman told me once to never lose my child-like wonder and fascination with life. Seven year old me took that advice quite seriously and I try to follow it with what ever is left of the child in my heart.
I have seen mountains. REAL mountains. I fully realize that this is something that I will at some point in the very near future not be so enamored with, which, in turn, leads me to feel that it is important for me to translate my immediate reaction to you ASAP before they become just another beautiful thing in this broken world.
I can honestly say that I have never felt a greater urge to put pen to paper and write what I was thinking and feeling. The tsunami of creativity that was whirling behind my eyes really took my breath away for a short moment. Metaphors flew through my head like comets, shining with clever description and burning across my train of thought. Shame they flew as fast as comets, leaving me the few that I can recall.
They are tremendously beautiful things, these mountains. And that's just viewing them from an airplane. I can only imagine what they look like from the ground. Coming from a land of rolling green hills and picturesque pastoral settings that make you want to buy an easel and paint for the rest of your life, I was taken aback by the pull they had on my heart. Mountains are a completely different breed of scenery. They make you want to breathe, to climb, to stretch. Screw painting, you cannot capture their soul on canvas. They make you their canvas, gracefully tearing their way across your line of sight.
It was also quite amazing to see bits and pieces of this giant country from my tiny window. Before today, the furthest west I had ever been was probably St. Louis. I had seen the eastern area of the country from a plane many times before. It was always beautiful, but very bland at the same time, as though our country was made up of right angles and squares like some giant quilt strewn across the land.
Wrong.
I just hadn't flown far enough!
This country still has some wild in it. You lose the structured city lines and gain the wide open curves of the plains. Even where there was clearly civilization the seamless welding of cookie cutter fields and chaotic wilderness was beautiful.
Color was everywhere, my graphic design brain went haywire labeling hues and sifting through fonts to use. ("A Love of Thunder" would have made a glorious title font. Just the tops of the letters peaking through the clouds.)
The Rockies took my breath away. The 20 minute glimpse of California? Im sold already. We didn't even leave the damn airport and I love San Francisco. That city jumped to my top 3 list of places to move with ridiculous speed. KFarm and I were particularly tickled with the wind farm we saw just before landing.
One person whom I thought of on our cross country flight was my grandfather. I am definitely his granddaughter as i have clearly inherited his love for travel. I miss him greatly, but I'm 99% positive that he's pretty proud of me right now.
Alight kids! Still on the plane from San Francisco to Auckland. I think I'll curl back up into my yoga ball and sleep for a few more hours. Australia here we come!
I have seen mountains. REAL mountains. I fully realize that this is something that I will at some point in the very near future not be so enamored with, which, in turn, leads me to feel that it is important for me to translate my immediate reaction to you ASAP before they become just another beautiful thing in this broken world.
I can honestly say that I have never felt a greater urge to put pen to paper and write what I was thinking and feeling. The tsunami of creativity that was whirling behind my eyes really took my breath away for a short moment. Metaphors flew through my head like comets, shining with clever description and burning across my train of thought. Shame they flew as fast as comets, leaving me the few that I can recall.
They are tremendously beautiful things, these mountains. And that's just viewing them from an airplane. I can only imagine what they look like from the ground. Coming from a land of rolling green hills and picturesque pastoral settings that make you want to buy an easel and paint for the rest of your life, I was taken aback by the pull they had on my heart. Mountains are a completely different breed of scenery. They make you want to breathe, to climb, to stretch. Screw painting, you cannot capture their soul on canvas. They make you their canvas, gracefully tearing their way across your line of sight.
It was also quite amazing to see bits and pieces of this giant country from my tiny window. Before today, the furthest west I had ever been was probably St. Louis. I had seen the eastern area of the country from a plane many times before. It was always beautiful, but very bland at the same time, as though our country was made up of right angles and squares like some giant quilt strewn across the land.
Wrong.
I just hadn't flown far enough!
This country still has some wild in it. You lose the structured city lines and gain the wide open curves of the plains. Even where there was clearly civilization the seamless welding of cookie cutter fields and chaotic wilderness was beautiful.
Color was everywhere, my graphic design brain went haywire labeling hues and sifting through fonts to use. ("A Love of Thunder" would have made a glorious title font. Just the tops of the letters peaking through the clouds.)
The Rockies took my breath away. The 20 minute glimpse of California? Im sold already. We didn't even leave the damn airport and I love San Francisco. That city jumped to my top 3 list of places to move with ridiculous speed. KFarm and I were particularly tickled with the wind farm we saw just before landing.
One person whom I thought of on our cross country flight was my grandfather. I am definitely his granddaughter as i have clearly inherited his love for travel. I miss him greatly, but I'm 99% positive that he's pretty proud of me right now.
Alight kids! Still on the plane from San Francisco to Auckland. I think I'll curl back up into my yoga ball and sleep for a few more hours. Australia here we come!
Sunday, February 10, 2013
Saturday, February 9, 2013
Lindy Hop
Fact #1: I am a white girl.
Fact #2: I dance like a white girl.
Fact #3: Until now.
Now I (kind of) dance like a white girl who can actually move with some level of coordination on a dance floor. I introduce you to.... The Lindy Hop:
In an effort to try and learn something new as often as possible, I have been taking dance lessons from a lovely couple in Lexington for the past month.
I have dipped my toe into the basics of the lindy hop, and I LOVE IT! I have never had so much fun on a dance floor in my life! Especially the swivels and switches haha! Long legs + swivels = LP was made to shake her booty (or as Mary put it "polish the wall").
There is a performance group out of Lexington that I'm seriously considering trying to weasel my way into. I watched a few of them dance the other weekend and it was truly the most entertaining and captivating thing to see. Videos are one thing, but I highly suggest that you find a place to see it live. We'll see if I can be any good at lindy, but at the least I'll be a decent dancer!
Fact #2: I dance like a white girl.
Fact #3: Until now.
Now I (kind of) dance like a white girl who can actually move with some level of coordination on a dance floor. I introduce you to.... The Lindy Hop:
(Side Bar: If I EVER find someone as funny as this man on the dance floor...game on.)
In an effort to try and learn something new as often as possible, I have been taking dance lessons from a lovely couple in Lexington for the past month.
I have dipped my toe into the basics of the lindy hop, and I LOVE IT! I have never had so much fun on a dance floor in my life! Especially the swivels and switches haha! Long legs + swivels = LP was made to shake her booty (or as Mary put it "polish the wall").
There is a performance group out of Lexington that I'm seriously considering trying to weasel my way into. I watched a few of them dance the other weekend and it was truly the most entertaining and captivating thing to see. Videos are one thing, but I highly suggest that you find a place to see it live. We'll see if I can be any good at lindy, but at the least I'll be a decent dancer!
Sunday, January 20, 2013
Petricited.
I am petricited. Petrified and incredibly excited about this ever looming, expectedly unexpected journey.
KFarm and I are working our way through a rough itinerary for this excursion. Neither one of us like trips that are planned to the minute, we are more "fly by the seat of the one pair of pants you packed" kind of travelers. Needless to say, I am petricited.
Petrified for the fact that I will be on the other side of not only the planet, but also in a completely different hemisphere. I am mainly worried about my creatures, especially Levi. He's been off lately from a health standpoint and if things go downhill while I'm away there isn't enough money or technology in the world to get me back in time. My chest gets tight just thinking about it. Ill be as far away as I can possibly get from everything and everyone I've ever know, aside from KFarm of course.
This is also an aspect that really does excite me at the same time though. If there is one thing that I have learned about myself at all it is the fact that I thrive on learning. New terrain, new faces, new life skills. All are things that I feel does a person good, body and soul. I want my soul to be like a goldfish and grow as big as the tank it lives in.
It's been an interesting week my friends. Damn good thing I learned how to play chess, that whole multiple strategy mind frame sure as hell comes in handy when planning the unplanned adventure.
-LP
KFarm and I are working our way through a rough itinerary for this excursion. Neither one of us like trips that are planned to the minute, we are more "fly by the seat of the one pair of pants you packed" kind of travelers. Needless to say, I am petricited.
Petrified for the fact that I will be on the other side of not only the planet, but also in a completely different hemisphere. I am mainly worried about my creatures, especially Levi. He's been off lately from a health standpoint and if things go downhill while I'm away there isn't enough money or technology in the world to get me back in time. My chest gets tight just thinking about it. Ill be as far away as I can possibly get from everything and everyone I've ever know, aside from KFarm of course.
This is also an aspect that really does excite me at the same time though. If there is one thing that I have learned about myself at all it is the fact that I thrive on learning. New terrain, new faces, new life skills. All are things that I feel does a person good, body and soul. I want my soul to be like a goldfish and grow as big as the tank it lives in.
It's been an interesting week my friends. Damn good thing I learned how to play chess, that whole multiple strategy mind frame sure as hell comes in handy when planning the unplanned adventure.
-LP
Sunday, January 6, 2013
Advice taken...
My 2 Year Life Physical:
Since January 2011 I ....
- Got married
- Lost my grandfather
- Became an entrepreneur (I make beautiful things happen to paper)
- Took a new job that I actually enjoyed and felt at home in
- Fell into a lovely spell of depression
- Clawed my way our of said depression
- Created some better life goals
- Got divorced (surprisingly, this is much more legally and financially complicated than the actual marriage)
- Moved into aforementioned Tiny House
- Became and much happier and wiser version of myself (LP 2.6)
- Experienced my first 3 day date
- Was suckered into keeping a puppy
- Almost gave away said puppy on 2984 different occasions
- Bought tickets for the trip of my lifetime (thus far)
- Somehow managed to convince a rather wonderful man that he should date me
- Went to the zoo!
- Celebrated the New Year properly
- Officially fit into single digit sized jeans
- Am happier, healthier and more satisfied that I should ever have a right to be.
Since January 2011 I ....
- Got married
- Lost my grandfather
- Became an entrepreneur (I make beautiful things happen to paper)
- Took a new job that I actually enjoyed and felt at home in
- Fell into a lovely spell of depression
- Clawed my way our of said depression
- Created some better life goals
- Got divorced (surprisingly, this is much more legally and financially complicated than the actual marriage)
- Moved into aforementioned Tiny House
- Became and much happier and wiser version of myself (LP 2.6)
- Experienced my first 3 day date
- Was suckered into keeping a puppy
- Almost gave away said puppy on 2984 different occasions
- Bought tickets for the trip of my lifetime (thus far)
- Somehow managed to convince a rather wonderful man that he should date me
- Went to the zoo!
- Celebrated the New Year properly
- Officially fit into single digit sized jeans
- Am happier, healthier and more satisfied that I should ever have a right to be.
We need tacos.
"Tacos. We need tacos."
A funny thing occured today...
I have been attempting to write this blog entry for a number of months now. Being the detail obsessed person that I can be when I am forcing myself to a task that I don't particularly relish, I was continually hung up on pieces of this entry. I couldn't find the right word, the right quote, the right thought to pull it all together.
I have been searching for a way to illustrate how I feel about exploration, adventure, spontaneity and definitely having an appetite for life. In reality, the answer had been before me at every meal I have eaten for the last 26ish years.
Little did I know, all I needed was a subtly inspirational Mex-American dish.
During one of many not-so-focused planning sessions for our New Zealand excursion, KFarm and I were craving some food. I would have been pleased with anything, but Katie is a taco freak. That is her go to meal if there is a kitchen nearby. (Mad props to her taco prep skills by the way, she knows how to work a skillet). At the mere mention of food in our bellies we dropped what we were doing an quickly absconded to the nearest grocery for some necessary items. Not long after, stomachs full, we were then able to turn our collective brains towards the looming task of accomplishing some form of a plan for our quickly approaching trip. And all was right in the world again.
Epiphany moment:
Every meal you have ever eaten and ever will eat should be appreciated.
Maybe simply for the fact that you have food on your table at all. Maybe for the fact that someone took time to prepare it for you. Maybe for the people you get to enjoy a meal with. Maybe for the fact that you used the special china to eat cereal out of and broke several etiquette rules in doing so.
The point being that you should take time to enjoy the meals you have. Taste every bite. Really THINK about what you are tasting. Name as many flavors in your head as you can. Fill as many seats at the table as you can. The more you can appreciate your food for what effort goes into it, the greater your appetite for life will become.
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