I heart my life...

You know that you have heard the saying before, “Everything happens for a reason”. Sometimes it doesn’t seem to make sense at the time or even right while it is happening or even once it is done. I also know I have said it before myself many times.
This weekend drove it home.
There is a reason why you remember faces and smiles from years past. There are reasons why you choose to forget some. There are reasons why loved ones leave us too soon from this world. There are reasons why friends come and go out of your life. There are reasons why some stay. There are reasons why you are allowed to keep doing the things you love. There are reasons why jobs are lost, jobs are gained, and jobs are turned down. There are reasons why you keep getting back up after getting kicked down. There are reasons why you got kicked down in the first place. You all know I could go on and on.
In the end, once it is all said and done, it really does all have a reason behind it.


All in all, I consider myself awfully freaking lucky to be where I am.
I love who I am with, I love my family and I also love my friends, most of whom I consider part of my family.


So if you are reading this now, thanks for being one of the reasons why I heart my life!

Hey...where did it go??

Summer I mean. 

It is that time of the year and I know that I'm not the first with this thought. 

The news today: 
sunset at 7:47. Feels earlier some days








Yep, fall is on its way. I always get excited and antsy for the seasons to change. I grew up in the Berkshires and having 4 seasons (if you don't count mud as one) is biologically essential to me. Just as one season gets old, another one comes rolling in, bringing freshness and life in its own way, with it.


What I am most excited for this upcoming season, is to start a new chapter and continue on this journey with someone I enjoy spending my time with. No longer 2 hours apart and no longer having to plan our weekends around a 4 hour round trip commute. 


I can't wait to have dinners mid week and conversations in person after work instead of through the electronic currents and waves that carry our cell transmission from one phone to the other.

I'm excited for colored falling leaves, pumpkin picking and pie making, warms meals on cool nights, working side by side, and laughing with each other or at each other.

I'm not going to lie either, I'm excited to pack up our car and go 'cross racing together. 

I'm also excited for winter, to go up to the mountains with friends, whether it is snowshoeing or skiing or just because.

I'm excited for spring and the new life that beckons with every budding plant.

I'm excited for all the seasons to come and go and recycle again. Because in the end, I'm excited to just be with someone who enjoys being with me as much as I enjoy being with them, no matter what season it is. 

Its summer….

…. Finally!! I waited all winter for the dog days of summer. Where the red liquid reaches upward in the thermometer, where the heat index is officially declared “holy crap it’s HOT out” and where the humidity level is at 145 million percent!!

Ahh it also means BBQ’s with friends, ocean visits, stopping to smell the summer breeze, trips to go camping, and of course an ample amount of bike riding smushed into catching rays of sunshine when we can!!

Yet this year it finally feels like the fun that is really meant to be had, like times when I was a kid growing up. Where summer meant parties on the reservoir, cookouts and the smell of campfires in the distance and the sounds of laughter and mingling. Summer reminds me of being a kid and having fun.

Yet like I said, this year feels right-feels fun. I guess it is because I am with someone whom really enjoys being with me and all my oddities and goofball-ness. Someone who lets me be me and doesn’t question a single thing and yet together-going with the flow is just natural and easy.

I’m lucky-I say that often but really I am on so many levels.

Now get out there and enjoy the spoils of summer for I know I will!! 

PS California was breathtaking and an absolutely AWESOME trip!!

Slacking on the blog page

That is what I have been doing.

Well it hasn’t been all riding bikes and hanging out and doing nothing while I have neglected this page. In the mere moments that I have a minute or two, it is usually consumed by school work!! There is only a few weeks left of school and holy crow am I ready for the semester to end and summer to be on my doorstep!!

I have been trying to cram an awful lot into an awful little, but I’m not the only one and I don’t have as much as some so I shouldn’t complain too much but WOW ready for a breather.

Hmm what has happened in a month?!?!

Well let’s see…

Most weekends were consumed by school work…wish I could pay someone….

or that I could go back to the Trapper Keeper days of simplicity…Yea I’m a bit old school….

Went and lifted some buckets..

poured some sap…

made some syrup…

Planned and schemed a vacation away to sunny CA to have a re-do of my 20-10, as my friend Liz calls it….

Much needed and a good break at the right time….

Oh yea…I rode my MTB…

And I won my first EVER bike race…And I feel great…finally can say that I feel 100% healed since my accident…

It pushed me further then I was comfortable with at times, but it made me face my fears and afterwards it was totally rewarding…

Ohh and getting ready for a little ball this weekend to break up the ‘pounding the books with my nose’…

Ready for summer….almost there….

This post...

is a by-product of research paper brain-fried-ness. 


Isn't funny when you focus so hard on one article of scholarly intent. You plug, prod away at it, try to annotate why, whom, when and the reasonings why you find this and that useful, and how to make it better until it all looks alike, no matter how many times over.
In the end, the words are just words, they all mean the same when you open up a dictionary, they just happen to be entered and written in different manners than others, as a by-product of YOUR mind. You secretly hope that your mind is of passing grade.


In the meantime, to break up the intellectual monotony of stressing and pressing words onto paper,  we experience weekends of relaxation. 


This weekend of one of those, simple and no real plans, except where to sleep and who I was with. Sometimes days like those that occurred, are needed in order to break away from the structure of everyday life and papers. 


To decide on a whim to stop here, eat there, and shop somewhere. It is refreshing to be so unstructured at times. 


Although a piece of paper with written words can have so many meanings, there are bigger things within the little things in life. 


It is nice to step away and enjoy them at times. 

Just right...

Have you ever been somewhere, done something, said something, been with someone and just know that it was just the right place to be, the right thing to do, the right thing to say, and the right person to be with?

Sometimes you go an awfully long time thinking that you are doing everything right all the time for all the wrong reasons. Then one day something clicks inside you and you realize that you weren't doing the right thing for yourself. It may take seconds, minutes, months, or even years to come to this realization, but when you do and you start being with people, doing things, saying things, and going places that are right for yourself, it is earth shattering. 

I have learned a lot through my years, but I think that I  have learned the most recently. I have learned that I can go places that I want to go and not feel guilty for that desire. I have learned that I can do something and not have to worry about if it is okay or not. I have learned that I can be completely open and honest and if people care about me, they will respect and understand my point of view. Lastly, I have learned that I can be with someone who truly values me as me. 

The moral of this story is that I have learned to just make sure you take time to do what is right for you, then everything else around you will be just right...

Happiness is...

so many things. 

family.

riding your bike outside.

getting fresh turns in pow.

always meeting new people.

laughing.

crying for good reasons.

having good food.

looking at someone and just knowing.

furballs that purr.

lazy days.

always looking ahead.

a well put together school paper.

snuggling on Sundays.

learning.

smiling.

barking fluffs of stuff too.

hugging.

honesty.

playing in the snow.

the shining sun.

warmth.

amazing.

real.

always being there for someone.

knowing they have your back too.

memories.

being and feeling true to yourself.

holding hands.

riding a horse.

beautiful.

true friends.

snowball fights.

wanting to try new things.

being able to  laugh at yourself every now and then.

truthfulness.

enjoying what you do.

squirt guns.

pink sunsets.

great music.

the ocean.

cattail fights.

rainbows.

art.

feeling the wind on your face.

comfortable.

being alive.

a journey.