November

This month was one of the longest and most eventful of my life. The term "emotional roller-coaster" is pretty insufficient but it's the only one that comes to mind. And it all began at the beach.

Myrtle Beach, to be exact.

We spent four calm, beautiful, peaceful days at the beach. I read books, walked, thought and thought and thought. I knew that I loved the beach but I didn't realize at the time how important that long weekend at the beach would be for me. It was nourishing and regulating and calming. We need that in our lives more than we go seeking for it!

Gift From the Sea by Ann Morrow Lindbergh is my beach book. I take it with me anytime I go to the beach and read from it randomly. This trip was so long I was able to read the whole thing, and let me tell you, I love this book. Here are some of my favorite moments in this book:

“Don't wish me happiness
I don't expect to be happy all the time...
It's gotton beyond that somehow.
Wish me courage and strength and a sense of humor.
I will need them all.”

“I do not believe that sheer suffering teaches. If suffering alone taught, all the world would be wise, since everyone suffers. To suffering must be added mourning, understanding, patience, love, openness, and the willingness to remain vulnerable.” 

“The most exhausting thing in life, I have discovered, is being insincere."

And just one more.  “Perhaps this is the most important thing for me to take back from beach-living: simply the memory that each cycle of the tide is valid; each cycle of the wave is valid; each cycle of a relationship is valid.”

Do you see why I love this book? There were so many perfectly timed reminders and perspective switches for me. Reading at the beach-one of my most enjoyable life experiences. 

 What's that? Oh, yes we did ride in a helicopter. Have a look.

It was awesome. Granger said so. 

 The weekend after we went to the beach I was able to attend a TEDx conference at Virginia Tech. If you're not familiar with what TED is, let me introduce you:  Prepare to be forever changed. Here are a few of the talks that most impacted me that day.

 Heroic by Nature, Cowardly by Convenience 

Re-creation Through Recreation

 Launching Lemons into Space 

Forget What You Know

 Disruptive Design via Additive Manufacturing

I have thought about these talks everyday since I went to the conference. I'm a TED fan. Also, I was super brave and went all by myself. So brave! So worth it!

My friends Maddison and Helen went with me up to the parkway. Again, bragging about where I live.

This spot is ten minutes from my house. No big deal. 

Granger earned some extra bucks and decided a sibling date to Applebees was in order. He's pretty serious about salmon; I mean, check this out.

Eats his dinner like a real man!

Actually, Granger was pretty inspired to have us go out to dinner that night. It was some good Granger time that, again, I didn't know how much I needed.

The next afternoon I was told a dear friend of mine in Utah had passed away. The next two weeks were a whirlwind of emotions and planning and conversations and  travel. You can read the post I wrote about Noah here. I'm not even going to attempt to define my feelings about him or his family right now. While I was in Utah I was able to reconnect with some of my dear Clear Horizons Academy friends. These are truly wonderful people who I absolutely love.

Me and James! I love love love this boy. 

I'm not sure you could say the four of us really worked together, but we did work at the same place. Usually when I was around these girls things felt way too much fun to be called "work". 

Wonderful Sabra Allred. I didn't realize she was in town and I definitely fell apart when I saw her.

 My Eddie-lovin' friend Jaime. This amazing woman makes some beautiful children.

Holli Holy Eyes. One of my nearest and dearest friends. So great to talk to each other in person, rather than just on the phone. 

This woman. I adore her. I hope one day I can be just like her.

And Lindsay. Honestly, I don't know how I would have coped with the last month of my life without Lindsay. She has been my sanity. And I'm in love with her son. 







 But I have to say, the absolute highlight of my trip was this person:

Marley girl. We're betht friendth.

I want to be Marley when I grow up. I absolutely love, respect, and adore her. It blows my mind that she loves me so much, but I'm so so so grateful for her friendship. She's the best.

One day I'll write about my flight home, (following the most painful goodbyes of my entire life), and the three wonderful men who took care of me, saw that there was a sane, capable person under all of my teary fatigue and were so very, very kind. As I said to one of my friends who called me in the airport, "I'm a very calm mess". I firmly believe people were sent to help me through a really, really tough day. Stories for later.

I know, I know, longest post ever. But guess what, it was the longest month ever so it kinda matches up.

Two days after I got back from Utah my family left to accompany an SVU travel study trip to NYC for Thanksgiving. The trip was really a great time; I didn't feel anywhere near emotionally ready for it, but by the end of the trip I had the moments I had needed to feel a little more myself and a little more stable and hopeful.

We went to the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, which was freezing and long and worth it. 

Granger's typical subway pose. 

My Mom, me, and Lady Liberty. 

Went to the MOMA. Walked around a corner. Oh, there's Starry Night. Just hanging out. 

A room with Monet canvases that took up entire walls. Beautiful. 

We also went to the Museum of Natural History. Some of you may recognize "DumDum". Granger and I were thrilled to meet him. 

And Teddy! I'm a fan, so it was lovely to share a bench with him. Granger was clearly delighted. 

My darling sister waiting for lunch. How cute is she?

I found this little sketch at the MOA and I quickly became obsessed with it. 

There's something very powerful about it to me. 

I mean, look at that. Amazing. 

We went to see Cinderella- a fabulous escape and also fulfilled one of my 99 goals. The show was fantastic. It's a lovely little tale anyway but they changed some of the story and there was so much more progression and meaning to it all. I loved it.






But the most impressive thing about this trip was that I drove one of these:

through this:

There were SO many people and SO many cars and I drove through it. Twice. I'm a freaking rock star.

Many, many things to be grateful for this month and a lot of pain to go along with it. Not a month I'll quickly move on from. Each of the experiences of this month keep replaying in my head and I think I'll be learning from all of them for a long, long time.

To all of you who actually made it to the end of this blog post, send me your address and I'll mail you a candy bar. You deserve it.

October!

Okay, I know everyone loves October. Here's the thing- I can be a snob about lots of things, and apparently I'm an October snob. If you haven't seen October in Virginia then just understand that needs to happen for you. Early in October I went with my friend Taerra to "the double-decker". It's a spot in my hometown that's used for everything from wedding receptions to late-night antics of young hooligans. It's got some ancient playground equipment and a bajillion picnic tables. And this is the view:

This is where I live. Those little buildings down there? That's my hometown. It's small and old and a little time warp and I love it.



Actually, I kinda told a lie up there. This isn't actually where I live. I live in Lexington now. It's hard to explain the BV vs Lexington aspect of Rockbridge County. They're ten minutes away from each other and they feel like separate worlds. I love both and I wish there was a lot more crossover between the two communities. As it is, I'm quite happy to claim both places as home. I live near the cemetery in Lexington and I recently claimed a bench under a tree as my very own. Here's the view from my spot:

What can I say? I live in a beautiful place.







I recently went to a Tedx Conference and one of the speakers shared the history of baseball in his hometown. His presentation was fueled mostly by photographs and then he mentioned a slump in his towns history. He brought this up to emphasize that it correlated with the time in their history in which they did not have a baseball program. But then he mentioned that he had no photographs of that time period. He briefly commented on the fact that we rarely take photos of the bad times. I have thought about that a lot recently and he's very right and I don't think I'm okay with it. In October the brakes in my car went out and Granger and I almost crashed into an oncoming car. The subsequent adventure of calling for a tow truck, waiting on the side of the road, trying to calm my nerves, etc... was all incredibly photographable. (Photographable=not a word). But I didn't take photos and I wish I had.

In any case, that happened. And we lived to tell the tale. Here's the little blurp I put on facebook about it: "Driving down a hill toward a stop sign. Realize my brakes are gone. Notice oncoming car. We're going to collide. I scream my favorite swear four times (the s word, in case you're curious) and make a sharp turn onto the side of the road narrowly missing the other car on my left side and the huge ditch on my right. The car stops. I take a few deep breaths. Granger: 'Um... flat tire?' You people without Grangers must have really tough lives. My condolences."

I DO have photos of this happy surprise of all surprises!

I knew Bethany was coming into town but I had no idea she'd be at the temple, and I certainly didn't know that Heston would be there! Bethany sent me a photo of her and Heston and I could tell it was at the temple and I immediately called her. The conversation went something like this.

"Hi!"
"WHERE ARE YOU?"
"At the temple. Where are you?"
"Fifteen minutes away!"
"WHAT? AH!"
"Go to the visitor center!"
"Okayloveyoubye!"

One of my most enjoyable phone calls. Bethany was in town for several days and her very gracious family was kind enough to let me steal for a bit. I think we had just over an hour, but anytime with Bethany is something I treasure! Few people know me so well and vice versa. We're just really good friends, okay? See look.

ElizaBethany and delicious hippie desserts.

AND LET'S NOT FORGET HALLOWEEN! One of my 99 goals is to make and wear a legitimate halloween costume.

Check! How cute are we? Farishte (aka Thing 1) came up with this idea and I thought it was so clever. Making the costumes was actually pretty easy and really fun. You guys, I love Farishte. She's one of my very favorite thing 1s.

And then that night we drove here.

But you'll have to wait for the next blog post for that story.

Pretty dang good month I'd say.