lucky hoo

it is fun to think about doing something more with my little paper creations, but then I do one and realize its better to just do one every now and again when the mood strikes. What if I had to do them more? Hoo knows, but I'd end up hating it. Too much gluing... So for now - its a fun way to fill spare moments while I job hunt. And a great way to recycle paint sample cards. The sky came from the discarded color options for the great Frybaby basement kitchen project under construction right now as I type.

in good hands

not to sound like an Allstate commercial, but I do believe there is something to the idea of getting back to basics. This isn't a new concept and I'm certainly not taking advice from the former president of Jack Bauer's universe merely because he tells me I'm 'in good hands'. The statement just rings true to me. {And can you blame me if I did listen to that man? It's gotta be the voice.}
Maybe it has something to do with being removed, or really, completely disconnected, from the basic things I appreciate and love. I knew it would all still be here, so I didn't miss it at all. I completely put it behind me. Any kind of thought that would crop up out there coming from the direction of home was easy to put aside because what could I possibly do from there about missing anything? Nothing.
So, being reunited with 'home life' again and feeling overwhelmed by how familiar everything is while at the same time being a foreigner in my own regular day to day life is a pretty cool trip if you ask me. I recommend it to anyone to step outside your norm and take a good look at what you hold dear.
Like the true bug lover that I am, I have been observing from a introspective vantage point how everything has slowly come into focus around me. What really touches me, what am I doing with my life?
So as you can expect, and certainly saw coming a mile away with all my foreshadowing is: Experiencing everything that is familiar again has brought a new appreciation to, well, the basics.
I like the chores of life. Running around town, sending in resumes by the bushel. Wondering what kind of work I'll find and where it'll take me from here. I liked having the short term responsibility while the fam was at the lake of turning on the sprinkler for the garden. And the feeling of warm cement on my bare feet. I liked having pizza with the family tonight and wandering over to Jackie's house with a feeble made up excuse of why I needed to be there only to hold the measuring tape for Jeff while he works on a project and hanging out with Jackie in the drive way while she spot cleaned the upholstery in her car.
I knew getting away would be good for putting things in perspective, but what the new perspective would be - I hadn't a clue. I knew it'd be interesting and that is why I wanted it. Things were getting stale. The fear was that I wouldn't know how to curb the wild adventure streak once I got back and had to get back to responsible living once again.
I think that perspective I am always after is an always changing thing. Ever the layering of wishes/experiences/heartache/achievements in the way unfolding life does things with all of it's unforeseen messiness and perfectly falling pieces that create our stories while we love/worry/laugh our way through the day to day-ness. {Picture the music montage at the end of a tv show episode and this is what I'm conjuring up in my head to fit what I'm trying to describe. Put it to music with some soul and beat to it and you've got it.}
I was breathing in adventure while out to sea, now it feels like I'm exhaling an energized and renewed love for the simple pleasures - the basics of life.
Who knows, maybe I should think about switching to Allstate, it seems I've really taken to their ad campaign. Ever the sucker for good consumerism.

comparisons

comparisons are pretty easy to make. I don't necessarily like to compare many things in life, it can be hazardous. Somethings are just different, and should be left that way. Neither better or worse, just not the same. Sometimes the differences are so apparent, I can't help but poke at them.

For instance, last Sunday I was in Panama City taking in every last detail of a chapter coming to an end; enjoying time with friends and eating good food. Today, I found myself at the Awesome's making apricot nectar and being fed tuna melt on toast like I never left.

Last week I was wondering if I would enjoy silence as much as I thought I would.
This week I have found that silence is every bit as fantastic as I remember.


The jungle is gorgeous and I like the lushness and the way everything felt exotic, even the most mundane thing.



















The desert has a harsh beauty to it that is home deep within me that lets me know I'll be a desert rat no matter where I go. Nowhere else on earth {that I have found yet} has the same effect on me.

10 k + molten lava love

I wanted to run a race sometime this year. I just wasn't really anticipating it being yesterday. I guess running up and down those hot, dirty ramps could be considered training... I did. I haven't seen the official times yet {not posted online yet} but whatever it was, I'm just fine with it as a number to beat next time. Mesquite, NV in November? Sounds good to me.



a little celebratory goodness. If there is a better desert {of the chocolate cake variety - we're not talking all time, there are just too many options} I have yet to find it.

sliver of the theater rm

Lucy is such a babe. Jackie called as I was making a zucchini casserole and asked why I wasn't sitting on Main Street with her right that minute watching the parade. I didn't have a good answer for her, so off I went to enjoy some hometown flavor. It was a pleasant summer evening, walking down the street, saying hello to old friends and neighbors. Sitting with Jackie at a parade is an event, she is a candy hording extraordinaire.

a little slice of what has been going on in the Theater Room, or aka, my room for the next x amount of time. {Frybaby, remember when we joked I'd only be here a year?}
I chose the wild Golden Cricket {professionally painted by PBPB, thnx guys!} color for the walls because of the lack of natural light in the basement and the need to create a feeling of warmth. Though, after taking the roller shade off today I was surprised by how much afternoon light could sneak in, given the chance. When the room is being used in the way it was intended and the idea is to create a fun place for chilling, the warm wall color will be a great jumping off place to create a pallet that matches the fun family who graciously lets me be a gnome in their basement. I never thought I'd EVER chose a yellow of any kind, it is a risky move, but this particular yellow has a lot of great gray and even a bit of green undertones and has yet to make me feel anxious or upset. {Something a bad yellow could easily do.} I can't wait to do curtains/accessories next. I'm thinking plush, warm fabrics with lots of texture and vibrant pattern without being loud or overbearing. Don't think it can be pulled done? Just wait for the updates! {but don't hold your breath, they won't come until I become gainfully employed again}
WOW, that was a lot to say about color, still with me?

bigger things soon enough

I am here. Home. {Home?} The title seems to fit alright, but I also feel like a stranger in my own skin. I woke up this morning disoriented and confused in the red room at Grandma's house and immediately went back to bed when I couldn't decide what to do with myself. I feel like I should be jumping right into things but I also feel like I need a minute to catch my breath.
I don't have answers to questions like what am I going to do now? What about a job? When does school start? What would I like to do with the day? What would I like to eat? ? ? I don't know. I just don't know.

so instead of facing the bigger of those questions, my parents and I went and bummed around Park City for the afternoon.

I'll tackle the bigger things soon enough.

For now, it just feels good to be with my parents, breathing in the fresh mountain air, trying my hand at beating gma at cards and getting rid of the monster that I was passing off as the hair on my head. {Jackie - my head thanks you for parting it with the shaggy beast}




something to be noted: I posted this entire post in the same amount of time it would have taken me to upload just ONE picture with the internet on the ship!!

when everything went pink

A sampling of the variety of vehicles in the parking lot outside the ballpark earlier this week after a crowd showed up to watch the game.

This may very will be my last entry from the great blue sea. We arrive in Panama City tomorrow morning and I hope to be off soaking in every last bit of this experience I can since I'm still nowhere near ready to put it all behind me. Maybe a couple days on shore eating good food and taking in the sites will help it feel more final?

I woke up early this morning to see the sun come up and was happy to find a beautiful lightening storm to the northwest and a beautiful peachy orange start to a sunrise that never quite reached full glory before the stormy skies overtook it. As I was leaning on the railing along the bridge wing looking east enjoying the breeze and the way the water was breaking against the ship when everything went pink, the crane overhead sparked and my hair shot straight up. I don't know how close I got to becoming a breakfast accoutrement {toast} but it sure was a very exciting way to start my day!

A few new things to add to the ever growing list of cool things done on the ship:

I saw glowing plankton in the wake of the ship a couple nights ago. It looks like giant fireflies under water.

I helped crack over 1000 eggs last night into a giant metal bowl for breakfast this morning.

We ran 12 laps on the ramps. A new record for me. {4+ miles, it isn't really about the length but more the fact that it is incredibly hot and downhill usually kills my knees that makes this new record especially promising. Maybe the St. George half marathon can become a goal once again?}

I was visiting my friend Sean on the bridge, but this isn't the new part.
We've been decorating his house {in our imaginations of course, since it is in VA and we are here} We talk colors and art, this and that really, while he steers the ship.

He had to go downstairs to grab something for Second Mate so S.M. told me to watch the helm for Sean. Just like that, and I'm the only one standing there with the guys in the room behind me studying the course using the sexton {cool devise but not very accurate}.

There is a digital reading of the course we are on that hangs down in front of the helm. We were aiming for 120 so I could let it go anywhere between 118 and 122 but ideally it should stay right around 120. Easy enough right? Turn the wheel 5 degrees in either direction to correct the course before returning to 'mid ship' and let the numbers ease up or down accordingly. But there is a certain finesse to this steering of a large ship thing. Work it too hard and you are just wasting your energy trying to fight something fluid that will never be perfectly straight. And if you don't pay attention, soon you are incredibly off course. There is a moral to that story; I'll let you draw your own conclusions.

I drove for about an hour before I'd felt I'd had my share of being the second most important person on the ship. {in Sean's words, not mine}

I'm sad this is my last post from the Comfort. I hoped I'd be more ready to come home, but feel even less ready as the minutes wind down.

{side note: this doesn't mean I'm not excited to see you all soon, because I am!!}