HOW SUMMER SHOULD BE

I walked out of work and the air was dead. It felt warm against my skin, the stagnant kind of warm that preludes a big storm. The atmosphere makes me feel like the air is yellow. Just as the door swung closed behind me and strike of lightning bolted across the sky followed immediately by long, low rolls of thunder.

This is my favorite part of the summer season.

Heading to my car, my eyes were locked on the sky. The clouds had rolled in, nice and dark and eerie and low. I rolled my windows down and turned the radio off as I drove out of the parking lot and into the street. The stop and go traffic let me watch the storm in my rear view mirror - we were headed in the same direction. The sky ahead of me was light and the sky behind me was dark. It was quickly overtaking the lines of cars.

The vehicles in front of me weren't moving and the lane next to me was clear, and as I went to pull into it I noticed the car behind me had the same thought. It felt like we were in a natural disaster movie - evacuating our town from the impending doom. We all had our windows down and a couple cars over I could hear someone rocking out to Eminem. Storm camaraderie at it's finest.

I pulled into the parking lot just as the rain started to fall. Thunder crashed in the sky again, along with a thousand little flashes of light.

"There's a storm outside!" I called as I ditched my belongings in my bedroom. I didn't even bother to close the door behind me. Kicking off my shoes and throwing my purse on the floor, I raced back out the front door like a six year old who just heard the ice cream truck coming. Erik had already beaten me out the door and together we stood on the deck to watch the lightning dance and listen to the thunder boom.

The storm only continued to get louder as we talked about how this felt like the end of the world - in a giddy, hollywood type of way. And then it started to pour. The sky just opened up and wind started to blow and it all came together in the best possible summer storm you could dream up. The rain beat against the roofs of the other apartment buildings in a way that looks as if it were snow drifting on a mountain. The water pooled in the parking lot, the trees were bending sideways and in the distance we could hear sirens.

I felt like my heart was going to explode. There I was, standing out in the rain, surrounded by thunder and lightning. This is all I ever wanted in life. My skirt was drenched and so was my shirt and hair, but I couldn't have cared less. Erik braved the elements and stood in the middle of the parking lot while the rain soaked him through to the skin.

This is how summer should be spent.

We stood on the balcony and listened to the crashes of thunder and watched for spears of lightning. And soon the rain lightened up and the thunder rolled away and just like that we were back to normal.

REFLECTION

As the year starts drawing to a close, I seem to always get more reflective and thankful about life. The serenity of a snow laden landscape, the sun setting behind the rolling hills of the Palouse on a long drive home, and the calmness of the music playing softly through my car's stereo speakers all come together in such a perfect way, indescribable with words. It makes me all sorts of nostalgic.

I was remembering my life for this past year and what a crazy roller coaster it's been. It's funny to me, that as you go through life you often forget what life was like a month ago. A year ago. Three years ago. Who were you then? What were you doing? Who was important? Where did you live?

And holy buckets you guys, I have come so far. When I started this blog* I was a freshman in college. I was just a little baby, embarking on the adventure of my life with no idea of the obstacles I would face or the path I would choose. I was wide eyed and innocent, not even eighteen years old. Now here I am, twenty-three and graduated with a full time teaching position.

Sometimes I wish I could go back and do it all over. But then I think about all the papers I had to write and projects I completed, paperwork I filled out, and I'm glad I'm on the other side of all that. We tend to glorify the past, only remembering the good parts and forgetting the painful ones. College was such a fun time in my life, for the most part. But there was a lot of crap I went through too, and college hurt a lot. It forced me to grow, it helped shape my journey.

College was full of life lessons to learn. It was full of relationships, with boys and girls who were older and younger than me. I had to navigate situations I'd never been through before. I had to learn who to trust and when to let go. My time at the university taught me so much more than just academics, it taught me life. And for that, I am thankful.

There is a lot in my life, actually, that I am thankful for this year. Because it's November, a lot of my friends and family are posting everyday the different things that make them grateful. I haven't been doing that, and I'm not sure why. But here are some things that I'm thankful for everyday:

My family. Without their support I wouldn't be doing what I'm doing today. I know that we don't always see eye to eye on everything, but I do know that they will love me no matter what.

My friends. There are people on this planet who aren't related to me and yet will still always be around. That is comforting beyond words, especially for a quiet little introvert like me.

My boyfriend. That boy does not know how special he is to me on so many levels.

My pup. I love that little Lottie dog more than I know how to express. She's just the cutest.

My job. This is the toughest thing I've ever gone through and some days I really feel like walking away but I know that this is where I'm supposed to be. At least for the moment. And plus, my coworkers and students are generally pretty awesome. This school is a great environment to be in everyday.

The weekends. I love those precious days in between work weeks. Especially when I get to share them with Nathan. It just doesn't feel like the weekend when we're not together.

My life. This adventure that I'm on is beautiful. Everyday I get to make new memories in this unique journey that God has blessed me with. I can't remember a time when everything was easy, but all the pieces fit together to make this beautiful picture. I don't get to see the whole thing just yet, but even the ugly parts of life are used to make the whole thing pretty darn rad.

Happy November, guys.

(ps here's a poem that i wrote a couple years ago. i just found it in my archives. it's a gem)

*i just realized that yesterday was the five year anniversary of my little blog! high five!

summer shenanigans. life is fun.

I don't know what I had imagined really for this summer, but it hasn't exactly turned out at all like I thought it might. I talked dreamily about moving back to Moscow for the summer and working and hanging out with all my friends, but then that plan kind of fell through and I ended up staying home.

It's funny to me how life almost never works out the way we planned, but it always works out.

This month I'll turn 23. And if you ask me what I want for my birthday I will tell you the same thing I say every year. A big fat resounding "I don't know!" Show of hands for those shocked? Yeah, that's what I thought. No one.

But the more I think about it, money is always a good option. Art supplies too - I mean, an artist can never have too many supplies. Beyond that it's a toss up. I trust your judgement. A million dollars? You shouldn't have! (But seriously, anyone? Anyone? A million? I'll put it to good use, I promise!)

And now for the picture part of my posts, because how will you understand all my summer adventuring without visual representation? Ahem.

 view from work! what! up!

 miss megan just turn 23, exactly a month before me

we're almost birthday twinsies. it's our thing.

 nathan and i played on the rope swing at the beach

somewhere along the way i lost my boyfriend and gained a tarzan

it was awesome

we needed a good adventure so we got in the car and drove

we found this little restaurant on cda lake so we stopped for drinks

i love this guy so much

he's the funnest

a long post with lots of pictures. you've been warned.

So basically Houston rocks my socks off. Spending time with two people I love dearly and their three beautiful children was just exactly what I needed. And even though I didn't really want to leave Texas, I feel more rejuvenated to live life and make decisions. It was good for my soul.

Anyway, after we hit up Galveston we moved on to the zoo and spent the day taking a bazillion pictures of different animals. Lions, tigers, leopards, chimps, lemurs, jellyfish, sea turtles, giraffes, you know the drill. Sometimes I think I could go to the zoo every day.

After our crazy zoo adventures that involved terrorizing various wild animals and sketching giraffes while eating pepperoni pizza, we felt like we'd been run over by trucks. It was time for a nap. And also some Shipley's donuts.

On Thursday Joel and I hit up the Museum of Fine Arts. Holy buckets, you guys! I could have stayed there for days. Days I tell you! The Picasso Black and White exhibit was there and if it hadn't been 17 extra dollars I don't think we would have looked at anything else in the whole building.

But as it was, we walked around looking at all of this historical painting! Good gravy there were rooms upon rooms of all this amazing artwork. I almost couldn't handle it and I'm pretty sure I took pictures of almost everything just like an art crazed teenage girl. I mean, I got to look at pieces of art created by masters. Masters! People who lived in the 1700s and the 1800s and can you just imagine for a second what that is like? To stand in front of a painting that van Gogh himself created. Van Gogh is my BMW of the art world. It seriously doesn't really matter what it was that he painted and I will still love it just because it's van Gogh. For real. There wasn't much of his work though, so I took pictures of everything else. And then I collaged them on Instagram like a wannabe hipster. I'm the coolest.

there is a tunnel that takes you from one building of the museum to another and it is crazy awesome. it changes from red to violet lighting and it was probably one of my most favorite parts of my visit!

this is a detail shot of that awesome skull artwork. the whole thing was filled with all sorts of crazy awesome stuff. I think we stood in front of it for at least ten minutes finding different gems. It was fantastic!

i wanted to buy this mug so bad!!

Friday night was my last night in good old Texas, so we spent it watching Wreck-it Ralph, eating ice cream and soaking in the hot tub. Saturday morning came way too early and saying good bye to the Humans and Joel and Mandy was not something I really wanted to do. The week flew by too fast!

i had to take a picture of the stop lights. they are sideways! which is super weird!

7:00 in the morning came waaayyyy too early. But the sunrise was gorgeous.

Monday got here way too quickly bringing with it the start of the work week. But here we are, back to the daily grind. Basketball and library books, high school students and homework. Gearing up for the start of the 4th quarter and ultimately the end of the year. I can't believe how quickly time is flying.



So Monday, hit me with your best shot. Let's do this.

Hello Texas

Well hello April! When did you get here? This year is going by so fast it's incredible, but honestly doesn't it always feel that way? I mean, the older I get the faster time seems to move even though it hasn't sped up from when I was a little girl. Really, a second is still a second.

This week is spring break and holy buckets I can't believe it's that time of year already! But I am so glad it's spring time now instead of a snowy white winter blanket. Green grass and blooming flowers are a welcome sight, for sure.

I'm spending the week in Houston, Texas with some good friends. We are doing all the cool kids things like living the island life in Galveston for a day and turning into lobsters, visiting the zoo, and experiencing the greatest thunder storms of ever.

In Galveston, we rode the ferry, ate lunch, searched for shells, made up a song, saw some dolphins, played in the ocean, jumped over waves, laid in the sun, bought some souvenirs, ate Greek food, and wandered around the Strand for a bit. The we headed back home and got chocolate wasted at The Chocolate Bar before coming home and crashing like exhausted sun fried tourists. Seriously, it was the coolest.

blog lovin'

I guess Google is doing a really stupid thing and shutting down google reader. I'm not sure if this will affect Google friend connect, so here we are. Bloglovin, come love on me and Follow my blog with Bloglovin.

Plus, I put a link in the sidebar for good measure. Or follow with email. I'm also on Facebook. And Pinterest. That's a lot of options, phew. So for the love of bacon pick one! Or two. Or, you know, all of them. Whatever blows your boat up.

And just as a general announcement, read this. It's cute and adorable and you won't be sorry.

Oh, and did I tell you? For spring break this year I will be headed south, to a state in which I have only ever been in the airport when I was on my way to Honduras. I'm visiting these lovely people. Could I be more excited? Probably not.

It's time for some warm weather, shorts, flip flops and sunshine, darn it!

i'm so beyond ready for this. it's the best way to read a book. 

I leave on Saturday. It's adventure time, baby!

a first of sorts

Life has been kinda crazy lately. And by kinda crazy I mean a lot of stuff has gone down in the past month and a half. Some of it good, some of it not so good. Most of it I can't write about here - at least not yet. Which definitely puts a damper on my writing mood. I have probably written at least fifteen different posts and then deleted them all before anyone else laid eyes on them.

Part of that was so I could vent a few things to myself and get it out of my system and part of that was because I was so unhappy with what I had produced that I thought no one should ever read it ever. But you know, someone once told me that you have to create a lot of crap before you start creating masterpieces. So I don't feel too bad. Ahem.

Anyway, for those of you who don't know Alana, you should check out her blog. Also, I guest posted there today - a blogging first for me! Ah! When I originally agreed to write a post for her while she was on vacation I was a little nervous. It was very teenage girl of me, you know. Like oh my gosh what do I write about? Good gravy.

But, if you click over there you'll see that obviously I figured it out. A round of applause and other some such celebrations! Hooray!

And now, here are some pictures of life right now. Sometimes I think pictures speak more than words.

my goofy dog. she's a real snuggler.  

these "cookies" are just made with two ripened bananas, 1 cup quick oats and a handful of chocolate chips. ah-may-zing. 350 degrees for 15 minutes. you won't be sorry.

these pictures are just funny to me. instead of saying bye in person we texted each other pouty pictures. we're the silliest.

soy caramel latte with a feather design. it's like they know me. 

also i got to hang out with this guy. he's always a blast :)  

and well, happy monday everyone.