The Adventures of Kinky Reggae: A Vagabond for Beauty

Kristin and Jason have a friend named Adam.  He does lots of canyons with them; he and Kristin have become really close friends.  I have been hearing and hearing about Adam, but somehow, I have never met him. Well, Adam is going to be at FreezeFest.  And we are going to be friends.  I hope he's okay with that, because he doesn't really have a choice.  It's happening.   I made gifts for Kristin and Jason, and I thought, "Gosh, I don't want Adam to feel left out!"  So I started brainstorming inexpensive gifts I could make for a guy I've never met.   Thank goodness for Pinterest.  What did we do without it?  I found an idea for DIY Fire Starter Wafers.  All you have to do is get those round cotton pads at the dollar store and dip them in melted wax.  Easy, cheap, and perfect since the one thing I know about Adam is that he loves canyoneering (which means he does a lot of camping).   I went to the dollar store tonight and was confused by the lab

... till I'm back in my happy place. I love that grin on Kristin's face.  How could we be anything but happy?  We're in a canyon.

I started half marathon training yesterday.  I am thinking of doing the Rock and Roll Half Marathon in Nashville in April.  I still have moments where I'm like, "What the heck am I thinking?  I can NOT run a half marathon!"  But then I'm like, I might as well start training and just see what happens.  I'm also kind of surprised that I'm out running in the cold, and that I actually don't mind it that much!  30's are okay, but we'll see what happens when it gets in the 20's...   I had a panic attack last night, and I was SO mad.  Because I'm not even that stressed about anything right now!  At least, I didn't think I was.  Kristin and I were texting about this guy we know who is such a tool, and then I tried to go to bed, and I noticed my heart was racing, and I thought, "Are you f-ing kidding me?"  and within a couple minutes, it felt like someone was squeezing my lungs and I was hyperventilating.  So it was actually kind of

(Just realized I never blogged about my last two canyons of the summer.) This was a canyon of firsts for me- first canyon without Kristin and first time rappelling waterfalls! (Dropping into the canyon) It was weird to do a canyon without Kristin.  I missed her.  I especially missed her willingness to be chatty with me.  And, when she gets far ahead, she stops to glance back at me and make sure I'm all right.  I missed those little glances! I did Christopher Creek with Jason and Dan.  This was the second canyon I'd done with Dan; I met him and Jason in Waterslides last spring break.  He's such a great guy!  When we met Dan and Jason, I told Kristin, "You need to do more canyons with these guys.  They are good people!"  I'm so glad they became close friends! The day started with Dan and Jason freaking out that I hadn't changed my oil since I'd left Chicago.  They insisted that I add some oil.  They patiently showed me how to check my oil, ho

Thanksgiving 2012 did not get off to a good start.   On Wednesday, my brother posted some stuff on Facebook complaining about our family.  From what I could ascertain, his main complaints were that we don't eat Mexican food for Thanksgiving dinner and we don't drink enough.   He listed specific complaints about each member of our family, seemingly not considering the fact that HE IS FRIENDS WITH OUR FAMILY MEMBERS ON FACEBOOK.  When my cousin texted me about it, I just about died of embarrassment.   Not to mention that I was insulted by his comment about me being in "awkward family mode."  I'm not exactly sure what this was in reference to, but it made me remember all those Thanksgivings when I was younger where I wanted everyone to say what they were thankful for, or make cute place cards or decorations, and everyone would make fun of me except my grandma, who always had my back.  My grandma and I were BFF's.  This was the first year she couldn't co

I hung out with a friend of mine last night whom I haven't seen in a couple months.  She had the most amazing story to tell, and I just have to share it here because I am a sucker for romance.   My friend met a guy on a dating website who lived a few hours away from Washington D.C.  They had an online romance, and he asked her to come visit him.   So she did.   And he blew her off. And she found out he was seeing another girl. My friend was devastated.  But then she gave herself a pep talk.  "You are a strong, confident woman," she told herself, and set off to explore the city of D.C. on her own.   While visiting one of the monuments, she started chatting with a park ranger.  They had a really long, wonderful conversation.  As she walked away, she thought, "Why didn't I give him my number???"  She came up with some silly question to go back and ask him, and gave him her name and number. He called.   They went out.   He took her on a "b

At any given moment, if you ask me what I am thinking about, it's most likely one of four things: 1. Boys 2. Running 3. Canyons 4. Teaching I'm especially obsessed with running since it's new and I have such a love/hate relationship with it.  So I started another blog so I'd have a place to obsess over running: www.superslowrunner.blogspot.com .  It's nothing fancy, and I'm still not trying to be a writer or anything.  Just thought I'd share it since I know some of my friends have started running, too.  

Friday night was completely ridiculous and so much fun. It started with Hannah's birthday party at Lincoln Karaoke.  This place was way up on the northwest side (not sure what neighborhood).  It looks like kind of a shady little nondescript place, and you walk in and it's like a tiny hotel with a bunch of private rooms.  Our karaoke room reminded me of the inside of a limo- long and narrow, with couches along the walls, big screen tvs on the walls, and disco balls.  The binder of song selections contained many different languages.  You could choose what kind of background you wanted on the tvs, so someone put on the naked women channel.  Whitney was puzzled as to why these women kept pouring milk all over themselves... It was an interesting background as Hannah screamed along with Rage Against the Machine.  Oh, and they had light-up tambourines.  Sweet.   The best part was the people.  You have to have just the right crowd for karaoke to work, and Hannah and her friends wer

One of the things I love most about my job is that there is always the potential for awesomeness to happen at any given moment. Today I was about to do a fairly mundane task with my 2nd graders, a routine way for them to practice digraphs. They aren't totally bored with it yet, but I am.   And all of a sudden, I was inspired by Mary Poppins.   "You know what, friends?  We're going to do this a little differently today.  Because... in every job that must be done, there is an element of fun.  You find the fun, and SNAP! The job's a game!"   And I sure did burst into song as I gathered materials for a game I made up on the spot.   Sadly, none of the kids got the reference or understood what the song meant.  Metaphors are beyond them, and I realized some of the vocabulary in that song is a little advanced.  But they were captivated from the moment I went into Mary Poppins mode.  They loved that their teacher was singing and that they got to play a game.  

I think it's going to turn into family photo week since I found so many gems while working on our Christmas gift... Andy is one of the funniest people I know.  He always has been.  A typical family dinner would involve Andy doing a stand-up comedy routine, me laughing hysterically, and my parents asking us to leave the table.   I've gotten a few comments about the Easter picture in the last post, and I didn't even realize how funny that picture was.  Because Andy was ALWAYS doing something ridiculous; my parents despaired of ever getting a picture with both of us smiling nicely.   First day of school: Easter: Christmas: I LOVE this picture (well, except for my too-short bangs).  The look on Andy's face is priceless!  He used to be painfully shy, which you'd never believe if you met him now.  He looks ready to bolt at any moment in this picture.  And notice, I'm not holding his hand; I've got him by the wrist.  I have no memory of t

Today I spent several hours going through family photos for a Christmas gift I'm working on.  The more I looked, the more I felt overcome with gratitude for the childhood I had.  It wasn't perfect by any means, but it was full of things every kid should experience. We had fun, simple birthday parties (Remember when birthday parties meant wearing a fancy party dress?  And check out that She-ra tablecloth!) with amazing cakes. I loved Easter Sunday because I got to wear an Easter bonnet. We played in the leaves and on the monkey bars (on the swingset my dad built). We had some pretty cool stuff, like this bed tent I would put up every Easter to protect myself from the Easter bunny, who creeped me out.   And this record player that read me Disney books, my Muppet sheets, and the Raggedy Ann and Andy dolls my grandma made me. We wore overalls, and our moms took pictures of us on the first day of school.  (This is kinder

Before the race last week, I said I was never ever ever ever doing this again.  Ever.  Two days later, I signed up for this 10k.  Why?  I have a few reasons: 1. Jason once told me that I freak out in the canyons more than anyone he's ever seen.  But he said what makes me a badass is that I'll still do whatever he throws at me.  (And those assholes like to downclimb things that should be rappelled, so I end up doing some pretty crazy stuff.)  I just thought it would be kind of badass to do a 5k one weekend and a 10k the next.  Especially when it's something that scares me and I'm new at. 2. I felt guilty celebrating a 5k when I knew I could do more.  3. I thought it would be fun to surprise some of my friends.  I didn't tell anyone except for Nina and Whitney.  Oh, and my first graders.  Who said, "You're running a race?  I hope you win!"  Love it.   4. The 5k was actually kind of fun; I liked the feeling of crossing the finish li

Last week I had a date with a perfectly nice guy.  He was pretty cute, and we had a lot in common.  (He used to work at Yellowstone.  He camps in his car and loves road trips.)  He was interesting.  (He's from a small town in Mississippi; I was fascinated.)  He walked me home, kissed me good night, and didn't try to come up to my apartment.  He texted me to say how much fun he had, and how it must be hard for me, being so awesome AND gorgeous.   Conversation was a little awkward at times, but I attributed it to first date nerves.  Our text conversations were great; he was really funny.  So, on Saturday morning, when we both realized we weren't doing anything, we decided to meet for brunch. Thursday night, he'd been wearing a hat.  Saturday morning, he wasn't. And he was mostly bald. What made things worse was that I realized he was one of those guys who just looks SO much better in a hat.  Kind of like Kenny Chesney: Actually, almost exactly like K

I am constantly reminded of how blessed I am in the area of friends.  Joe ran my first race with me today, and I had a really positive experience because of him.  He showed kindness in a thousand little ways, and when you put it all together, it's kind of a big deal.  Here's how it all went down: Pre-Race: Registration fills up before Joe can register.  He puts an ad on Craigslist, and, at the last minute, is able to purchase someone's race bib.  He figures out all the arrangements, like where and what time to meet, how we're getting there, etc.  He meets me at 5:45 a.m. on a night when he could've gotten an extra hour of sleep.  I tell him I'm nervous about running early in the morning; I always run at night.   "How'd you sleep last night?" he asks. "Terrible." "Then it should feel like it's really late at night."  Gear check: I don't have a bag to put my coat in.  I didn't know you needed a ba